Does any aerodynamic gurus out there know how to design or have an idea of how to make an underbody cover to cover up the whole underbody of the 8 with heat ventilation along exhaust area and ground force in mind?

 

I saw a guy online who decreased the drag coefficient of a Toyota Tacoma to pretty near a Honda Insight. One of the things he did was make custom aluminum panels for the underbody. I don't know how much it would help us, but I was curious about trying it. I figured if I did, I'd just leave a tunnel for the exhaust. I can tell you that you'll want to make it out of aluminum (unless you are good with carbon fiber). You might be able to get some of the aftermarket underbody braces to give the panels some extra support. I don't have an solid concepts or anything, but I did contemplate it for a few days.

 

I was thinking about having a complete flat panel covering everything including the exhaust but have some holes at that area to suck air out. However this would not work when the car is traveling at slow speed. Then I had the same idea like yours but would the whole panel detach since you will surely get turbulence from the exposed exhaust tunnel area. Anyone out there with any more ideas?

 

i believe most F1 cars employ a "tunnel" effect under the car instead of complete flat panels. It makes the air travel faster under the car forcing the car to press into the ground. Your idea sounds like a real good one but what to you think about the heat produced?

 

I wouldn't be looking for ground effect downforce. I would just looking to smooth out the air flow under the car. This would reduce aero lift on the rear and should increase accelleration and top speed.

 

the saleen s7 has this sort of thing, and they say the car has so much downforce that if it were driving on a road upside down it would stick to the pavement!!!

 

I've heard that f1 cars generate more downforce than their weight when they're above 40mph, so technically it would be possible to drive it upside down at 40mph.

 

physics my friend! the source of the downforce comes from gravity, pushin the wheels to the ground, driving the car forward, creating downforce. if you take gravity out of the mix........

 

Same thinking here, I'm not after ground effect but smooth air flow, only problem is the heat from the exhaust at slow speed.

 

Formula 1 cars don't have any kind of venturi tunnel (or other types of ground effects) these days, it's been outlawed by sport rules since the early 80's I believe. Many exotic streat cars still have them though. Ferrari's F430 has venturi tunnels that create tons of down force and the car has no wings.

The tunnel has to be smooth, though, the exhaust can't be running in the tunnel, so I'm not sure you could do that with an RX-8.

A flat bottom wouldn't create significant downforce, but would decrease drag and might work under the 8.

 

The source of the downforce is aerodynamics. You take a wing from an airplane, add speed, and it lifts the plane up. You take that same wing, flip it upside down, add speed and guess what... You get pushed into the ground. An F1 car creates many times it's own weight in aerodynamic downforce when at speed, and it's a well known fact that an F1 car could drive upside down at speed given a long enough tunnel.