4 ms·
Meh, no. Essentially all the aero stuff you see in racing, including active aero and fans and stuff, is to increase downforce. Which is absolutely useless, unle
by semi-extrinsic 4y ago
Meh, no. Essentially all the aero stuff you see in racing, including active aero and fans and stuff, is to increase downforce. Which is absolutely useless, unless you're going more than 150 km/h (90 mph) while cornering hard.
Take the active spoiler on a Tesla Model X for instance - it is 100% a toy for people who enjoy the Transformers aesthetic. I don't think there are published numbers for it, but the Porsche Panamera which has a substantially more agressive spoiler is reported to produce a whopping 7 kg downforce at 250 km/h (150 mph), decreasing substantially at lower speed.
In the ordinary cars that actually need spoilers - famous example is the Audi TT - it's in order to fix crappy airflow giving lift at high speed, that is caused by the design of the car being optimized for looks rather than aero.
And aerobrakes?? Anything that's not big enough to cover 4 highway lanes is completely ineffective at speeds below 100 km/h (60 mph). It would be substantiallt more useful to install boat anchors.