I only offer a different way of looking at existing
ideas......Waldo
Underside Ogive Air-dam for Rear
Wheel Drive Cars
I designed this set-up for Ron Preutt's Pretty Woman C-Gas Bonneville Racer.
Ron was a courageous racer in the mid 1990's and would let me experiment on
his racer. He set many records in the 250 + mile per hour range. His creation
was sort- off a stock bodied 1988 Thunderbird running a bored and stroked, highly
modified, Ford engine, running gasoline and unsurpercharged in any way. The
engine made I think 1,160 horse power at 6,800 rpm this was quite an achievement
at that time.
Basically the "device " was a steel reinforced subsonic shaped ogive
clear Lexan skirt under the car. Starting at the rear of the transmission and
ending in front of the rear wheels at the sides of the body. Behind the rear
wheels were two steel rod reinforced flat skirts of clear Lexan (brand name
for polycarbonate plastic sheet). The car was only an inch and a half off the
salt at the front. Most of the air encountered by the car during a record run
was directed over the car. The air that went under the car was forced (with
as little drag as possible by the Ogive shape of the skirt/dam under the car)
out in front of the rear wheels. It was obstructed from re-entering the underside
of the car by the skirts behind the rear wheels. The aerodynamic result was
an extremely low pressure area between the rear wheels. The result of which
would be a vacuum at the rear of the car. The car was supposed to stabilize
and suck down eliminating wheel spin at the rear and it should track straighter
because of the pull.
At the speeds (250+ m.p.h.) Pretty Woman was running the suction force created
was so great that it blew out the special custom rear shocks built for the car.
Pruett was shaken and disapointed with the results. What we needed to do was
strut the rear of the car and eliminate the shocks and it would have worked
fine.
Stock cars such as NASCAR cars can use this concept for stability and traction.
Street cars since they need a good all around suspension, would need alot of
"development" which translated means money and guts!