Devin gets ready to hit the track. She was gridded right behind Dai.
If I don’t look too happy, it was because it was cold! It was in the ’30s with a blowing wind. I was pretty cold and miserable almost all weekend.
Kelvin CNC machines a bracket so we could really adjust the position of the wing. We could lower it and move it forward and backward. We added strings so we could study the airflow under the wing and over the rear deck and deck spoiler. We postulated that due to the Model 3’s curving roofline, the airflow would stay attached to the roof and not separate over the rear window, allowing us to lower the wing and reduce drag while possibly even increasing the wing’s effectiveness.
We used a Gopro to record video around the track. We could see how various wing positions would affect the airflow. We postulated that the best position would be low and rearward. We thought the wing would work efficiently here and also do more to activate the diffuser.
5 comments
I saw you there on Saturday, Mike. Like you said in one of the pics, you didn’t look happy, though, so I left you alone. Congrats on finding the time on the Tesla. I was so confused on why I never saw the Tesla out on track more, but now I know!
It’s hard doing 4 cars!
Not sure about that splitter on the Tesla. AFAIK, the Tesla has a completely flat bottom, which is perfect for ground effect. The middle section of the splitter should be turned up and radiused to enhance airflow to the underbody. As it is now, it’s effectively reducing airflow to the underbody, especially on corner entry (when all that weight transfers forward) and you are losing downforce when you need it most.
Also, by adding side skirts you can move the CoP rearward and make a ton more downforce with very little drag penalty (the most efficient solution.) These are super low buck modifications, so they should be simple to do. It won’t look great, but you can use fiberglass lawn edging from Home Depot to make very effective side skirts. Don’t ask me how I know. 😉
I helped design the aero and it works just fine. There is more to it than meets the eye including suspension tricks. Also a lot depends on what the owner is willing to do the car cosmetically and spend and how sophisticated of a shape that we can create with our homemade molds and bucks. We are actually trying to reduce drag as we have more than enough downforce. Our aero is currently pretty slippery. With 440 hp we are only a few mph slower than the stock car at this slightly uphill straight.
Great article! Thanks for all your hard work.