Aerodynamics

Drag and Lift

Drag

Aerodynamic efficiency of a car is determined by its Coefficient of Drag (Cd). Coefficient of drag
is independent of area, it simply reflects the influence to aerodynamic drag by the shape of
object. In theory, a circular flat plate has Cd 1.0, but after adding the turbulence effect around its
edge, it becomes approximately 1.2. The most aerodynamic efficient shape is water drop, whose
Cd is 0.05. However, we cannot make a car like this. A typical modern car is around 0.30.
Drag is proportional to the drag coefficient, frontal area and the square of vehicle speed. You can
see a car travelling at 120 mph has to fight with 4 times the drag of a car travelling at 60 mph.
You can also see the influence of drag to top speed. If we need to raise the top speed of Ferrari
Testarossa from 180 mph to 200 mph like Lamborghini Diablo, without altering its shape, we
need to raise its power from 390 hp to 535 hp. If we would rather spend time and money in wind
tunnel research, decreasing its Cd from 0.36 to 0.29 can do the same thing.

Fastback
In the 60s, motor racing engineers started to take aerodynamics seriously. They
discovered that if they reduce the slope of the back of a car to 20 degrees or less, the air flow will
follows the roof line smoothly and dramatically reduce the drag. They termed this design as
"Fastback". As a result, many racing cars, such as the Porche 935 / 78 "Moby Dick" shown here,
added an exaggerately long tail and lower the back.
For a 3-box car, air flow leaves the car
straightly at the end of roof line. The dramatic
drop of rear screen creates a low pressure
area around, this attracts some air flows back
to complement, thus creates turbulence.
Turbulence always deteriorates drag
coefficient.
However, this is still better than something
between a 3-box and a fastback. If the rear
screen angle is around 30 to 35 degrees, the
air flow will be very unstable. It could greatly
deteriorate the high speed stability. In the
past, car makers had little knowledge about this and created many cars like this.

Lift
Another important aerodynamic factor is Lift. Since air flow above the car travels longer distance
than air flow underneath the car, the former is faster than the latter. According to Bernoullis
Principle, the speed difference will generate a net negative pressure acted on the upper surface,
which we call "Lift".
Like drag, lift is
proportional to area (but
surface area instead of
frontal area), the square
of vehicle speed and Lift
Coefficient (Cl), which is
determined by the
shape. At high speed,
lift may be increased to
such an extent that the car becomes very unstable. Lift is particularly serious at the rear, you can
easily understand, since a low pressure area exists around the rear screen. If the rear lift is not
adequately counter, rear wheels will become easy to slip, and that is very dangerous for a car
travelling at something like 160 mph.
Fastback is particularly bad in this aspect, because it has a very big surface area in contact with
air flow. It seems that good drag and good lift are mutually exclusive, you can't have both of them.
However, as we did more research on aerodynamics, we found there are some solution to
achieve both of them ....

Aerodynamic Aid
Wing (rear spoiler)
In the early 60s, Ferrari's engineers discovered that by adding an air foil (we simply call "Wing")
to the rear end, lift can be dramatically reduced or even generates net downforce. At the same
time, drag is only slightly increased.

The wing has the effect of directing the majority of air flow to leave the roof straightly without
going to the back, this reduce lift. (If we increase the wing angle, a hundred kilograms of
downforce may even be available.) There is still a little bit air flow follows the back and leave the
tail under the wing. This avoid turbulence that appears in non-fastback car, thus remain drag-
efficient. Since there is too little air follows this route, its contribution to the lift can be easily
cancelled by the wing.

Wing must be
installed high in
order to be
benefited from the
majority air flow.
Escort RS
Cosworth is
right .... Cougar,
well, seems to use
 wing as decoration
only.

The first wing car was Ferrari 246SP endurance racer in 1962. Just one year later, 250GTO road
car incorporated a small duck tail rear wing, a first for road car of course. However, wing did not
get popular until Porsche launched its 911 RS 2.7 in 1972, whose big duck tail reduced lift by
75% at high speed. Just one year later, 911 RS 3.0 used a "Whale tail" wing which completely
eliminated lift. It became a trademark for the later 911s.
Porsche's new 996 Carrera offers us some useful data :

Front lift (at 157mph) Rear lift (at 157mph)

Wing down 64 kg 136 kg
Wing up 5 kg 14 kg

Spoiler

Spoiler is the aerodynamic kit that alter the air flows

underneath the car. We call those installed at the bottom edge of front bumper as "Chin Spoiler"
or "Air Dam", and "Skirt". To understand its principle, we must first talk about underside air flow.
Air flows underneath the car is always undesirable. There are many components, such as engine,
gearbox, driving shaft, differential etc, exposed in the bottom of the car. They will obstruct the air
flow, not only cause turbulence which increase drag, but also slow down the air flow thus
increase lift. (Remember Bernoullis's Principle ?).
Spoiler is used to reduce underside air flow by encouraging air to pass either side of the car. As a
result, drag and lift caused by underside air flow could be reduced. Generally speaking, the lower
the spoiler locates, the better result obtain. Therefore you can see endurance racing cars having
spoilers nearly touching the ground. Of course road cars cannot do so.

Smooth Undertray
 We can also reduce the influence of
underside airflow by covering the car's
bottom by a smooth undertray, as shown in
this Ferrari F355. This avoid turbulence and
lift.

Ground Effect

To motor racing engineers, wing might be a good solution to lift, but still far away from what they
really want. A typical formula one racing car corners at around 4g lateral acceleration, that
requires substantial downforce to keep the tyres firmly on track. Install a huge wing with high
angle can satisfy this requirement, but also deteriorates the drag coefficient.
In the 70s, Collin Chapman (again) invented a completely new concept to provide downforce
without altering drag - Ground Effect. He incorporated an air channel into the bottom of his Lotus
72 racer. The channel is relatively narrow in front and expand towards the tail. Since the bottom is
nearly touching the ground, the combination of channel and ground forms virtually a closed
tunnel. When the car is running, air enters the tunnel in the nose and then expands linearly
towards the tail. Apparently, air pressure is reducing towards the tail so that downforce will be
generated.
Ground Effect is so superior than wing that it was soon banned in Formual One. In 1978,
Brabham's Gordon Murray tried again with different means - instead of expansion channel, he
used a powerful fan to create low pressure near the tail. Of course FIA banned it again.
Ground effect is not too suitable for road cars. It requires the bottom to be very close to the
ground to form a closed tunnel. For racing car, this is no problem. But road cars should have
much higher ground clearance to suit different rough roads, up hill and down hill etc. This greatly
reduce the effectiveness of Ground Effect. McLaren F1 road car followed Brabham's trick by
using 2 electric fans to create ground effect, but honestly speaking, no tester had ever praised its
down force. Dauer 962, a so-called "road car" but it is actually a road-legal Porsche 962
endurance racing car, use conventional air-channel ground effect as the race car. Adjustable ride
height allow it to run in rough road (slowly) and make good use of Ground Effect in Germany's
Autobahn. Nevertheless, it can barely generate 40% downforce of the racing car.

Cd World Record
Cd Year Model Remark
0.137 1986 Ford Probe V Concept car
0.19 1996 GM EV1 Electric car
0.25 1999 Honda Insight Hybrid car
0.25 2000 Lexus LS430 --
0.25 2000 Audi A2 "3-litre" --
0.26 1989 Opel Calibra 2.0i base model
0.26 2000 Mercedes C180 --
0.27 1996 Mercedes E230 --
0.27 1997 VW Passat --
0.27 1997 Lexus LS400 --
0.27 1998 BMW 318i --
0.27 2000 Mercedes C-class C200 up to C320