Vortex Generators

[tab]

Might have to get one for my hard cover!

what's with the 35% of voters having a dead bear fetish?

[SCRIBR]

why waste money on fancy tek screws.. just nail it

[loopism]

They don't look large enough to do much. Autospeed tested some (first four links here) and Mitsubishi found that "Application of the VGs of the optimum shape showed a 0.006 reduction in both the drag coefficient and lift coefficient of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution."

There are also some VG's that cost about $6, a huge saving over these ones, with the benefit of enabling experimentation to see where they are most effective.

[XR06T]

there is no way that a mod like that would be worth over $5.

that would make sfa difference to drag, and it helps avoid a dirty rear window? wtf?

[apache_dj]

why not, as a gimick? Sure they're ugly but they cant make the aerodynamics much worse. I dont see it as a whole lot different to the rear wing off argument just personal taste

[senna_T]

the vortex generators were used on the evo cos it helps direct air through the rear wing, which is massive and is actually effective, the rear spoilers on falcons have next to nothing to do with down force, so it would basically be useless, besides you can get a rear window dust deflector from ford spare parts and not look like a ricer...

[ZAP]

Unless they get some wind tunnel data and proove that it will make some difference.

I was looking at the Evo9 and the QG cost from memory $480 and made only a small difference. Most of the difference was to the wind over the rear wing.

Big ricey wank and waste of money IMHO.

[TURBOXR]

Im going to buy fifty of them and stick them all over the car.

Then it will never get dirty ever again and I wont have to cry myself to sleep at night worrying about water restrictions and the environment.

And then I can paint it green and it will look like a lizard.

Awesome!!!!

[senna_T]

[aiboart]

These things work, how much depends on where you put them.

They are somewhat counter intuitive as until now we have associated smoothness and streamlined surfaces with low drag.

Whilst this is correct, there is another world of aerodynamics, turbulence, that until now has not been explored mainly due to the computational grunt needed.

In, short it is possible to reduce drag by creating many small vortices in some situations; some roughness can be a good thing.

Insects have always exploited this phenomenon to fly. The fact is we could not explain how they flew using traditional laminar flow theories; now we can using turbulence.

The most familiar human application of the vortex generator principle is the dimples on a golf ball - without the dimples the golf ball would not travel anywhere near as far as with the dimples.

Does this mean that cars will soon be covered with dimples and lizard teeth? Well, yes, some will but it is a trend that is just starting so stay tuned. The application for them is anywhere that you have a big bluff truncation to an aero surface such as the back of a station wagon or the back of a wing mirror.

Imagine a station wagon covered from half way with all types of vortex generating surface treatments and you get the idea. There are already some wing mirrors sporting vortex teeth.

Then again, maybe you do not need an application for them, this is after all a discussion about car styling... (my XRT has a wing after all...)

Regards,

aa

Edited 09/10/07 08:44 AM by aiboart