G'Day Guys,
Downforce v Drag, what a Pandora's Box this thread will be
, specially with the added requirement of cooling the gearbox and brakes
.
As Mats has said, this will be very tricky.
For a couple of basic primers, see
here and
here.
First caveat,
I do not race, have not raced and only know a little about Airflow.
Second caveat, YOU may already know all this.
Third caveat, I'm probably wrong
Some facts:
Downforce is a direct result of drag, you cannot have downforce without drag, however (on a car) you can increase downforce without increasing drag by altering something which already produces drag without (any/much) downforce.
Downforce is directly related to the speed of the car through the air.
Some suppositions:
Extra downforce on the straights is only useful if you have enough power to break traction while accelerating hard (except under braking).
So it would seem that for the average back yard racer that (within reason) reducing the downforce down the straight while increasing it as the nose dips under braking would be the best goal.
The tricky bits:
Changes in airflow due to braking, body roll, bumps in the track and
wind direction, temperature (
too hard, ignore).
All those lumps and bumps under the car and the need for cooling gearbox and brakes.
Minor changes could have huge effects (normally negative (ie. bad)).
So Pandora's box is open, let the interesting times begin.