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Let's Talk Aero

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ChrisM

Mostly harmless.
1,180
1,419
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
South Carolina
I'm going to be switching to Race Louvers on my hood, which has a good amount of data on their website. I went through some of the studies they did (looks like AJ was a guinea pig, thanks AJ!) and they've got some good data showing added downforce just by using the louvers and nothing else. Should I consider looking at a wing to balance out the louvers, or would the simple spoiler (it is 1" taller than the OEM GT500 spoiler) I have suffice to balance any added front downforce? Race Louvers have three trim levels with increasing effectiveness. My primary consideration is cooling, but don't want to throw everything out of aero whack.
 

ChrisM

Mostly harmless.
1,180
1,419
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
South Carolina
Louvers won’t ‘throw everything out of aero whack’. In a nutshell, because they don’t make much downforce.
Thanks Grant. When the claims are sub-100 pounds I figured as much, but I got to check with the aero gods anyways. It's just an excuse to spend more money, right?
 

Grant 302

basic and well known psychic
Thanks Grant. When the claims are sub-100 pounds I figured as much, but I got to check with the aero gods anyways.
Lol. No aero gods visit here. ;) But yes, that’s what I think is relevant.


It's just an excuse to spend more money, right?
And I don’t want to discourage you from doing that. 😁

But I also think it would be a disservice to you not to mention that they seem to produce pretty ‘dirty air’. And the more louvers they employ, the dirtier…or so it seems.

IOW, good to do…but not without compromises.
 

Fabman

Dances with Racecars
6,518
8,154
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Pleasanton: 1/2 way between Sonoma and Laguna Seca
@AJ Hartman and race louvers have some great real world data, wind tunnel tests, and CFD from an aero engineer from the Mercedes formula 1 team on the subject. Check out their youtube channels. Real proven data. Just what we need.
 
This isn’t all that relevant for materials say under an inch in thickness. It’s also incorrect to say that it (any rounding or radiusing) will ‘prevent separation’ with an otherwise flat splitter. There will still be separation under the splitter downstream. More so with any tunnel as he advocates.

Ultimately, it can even reduce downforce by raising the effective profile of the splitter and and accelerating the underbody air less than one with a blunt edge.
When we were having all the CFD done on our splitters, CFD showed an improvement by radiusing the leading edge. The gain is more on thicker parts, but even a half inch thick splitter showed a gain with a rounded leading edge. Same thing with tunnels. Df increased dramatically with our tunnels. I'd love to see data on the contrary if you have it. We have quite a bit of our CFD data on our website supporting our claims.

I'm going to be switching to Race Louvers on my hood, which has a good amount of data on their website. I went through some of the studies they did (looks like AJ was a guinea pig, thanks AJ!) and they've got some good data showing added downforce just by using the louvers and nothing else. Should I consider looking at a wing to balance out the louvers, or would the simple spoiler (it is 1" taller than the OEM GT500 spoiler) I have suffice to balance any added front downforce? Race Louvers have three trim levels with increasing effectiveness. My primary consideration is cooling, but don't want to throw everything out of aero whack.
Yeah, the Race Lovers design were the best ones we've tested in the wind tunnel, but generally they wouldn't be a large enough gain in Df to need a wing, and as you mentioned, if cooling is your primary concern are a great choice.
 
So...going to be adding aero bits soon. Did I read a few posts ago that hood venting isn't necessarily needed other than for cooling?
Hood and fender venting is mainly for cooling however it does add some DF. Good extraction allows aero parts ie a splitter to work better. So adding venting on a non aero car adds cooling and a little DF, adding venting on an aero car adds cooling and a bunch of DF. Plenty of data here https://racelouvers.com/test-data/
 
So...going to be adding aero bits soon. Did I read a few posts ago that hood venting isn't necessarily needed other than for cooling?

Hood and fender venting is mainly for cooling however it does add some DF. Good extraction allows aero parts ie a splitter to work better. So adding venting on a non aero car adds cooling and a little DF, adding venting on an aero car adds cooling and a bunch of DF. Plenty of data here https://racelouvers.com/test-data/
Al is right on. Louvers help cooling and Df, but at different degrees depending on setup.
 

Fabman

Dances with Racecars
6,518
8,154
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Pleasanton: 1/2 way between Sonoma and Laguna Seca
Since I get asked about numbers all the time after our trips to the wind tunnel. Unfortunately, there are a ton of factors at play where its not as simple as posting "a number". I decided to do a video, ironically enough using actual wind tunnel data, to show why its difficult to post data, unless a bunch of specifics are also listed. And its in those specifics that, as a business, allow me to help people end up with a balanced aero setup on their car. Hope this all makes sense, and will probably be my response to anyone in the future that asks me "whats it make?" haha

 

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