Payne

Im in the process of getting really serious about being damn fast in the autoX and have massive traction issues I am trying to resolve - 479rwtq NA - 02 383 z06.

I am buying a used trunk lid and am either installing a plexiglass wing or a 'ricer' wing.

My concern is mainly peak tq in 2nd gear and trying to get as much traction as possible out of the corner in the 50mph range... I rarely see 90+mph, so a front splitter and drag arent as much of a concern as in a HPDE car.

Im leaning toward the plexi for a few reasons-

1) Its cheaper
2) Its adjustable
3) My friends wont laugh at me for being a ricer, haha.

Any reason to run a real wing instead?
What angle is best for the plexiglass?
Any worries about using the z06 trunk as a structural piece?
How tall should it be? 12"
How big a piece of angle iron should I put on top?
Where can I buy helm (sp?) joints and other hardware to install?
Do I need to reinforce the trunk lid at all?

Best,

-Jason

tjZ06

FYI-

You're going to use heim joints not "helm" amongst other things to build "strut rods" as they are often called, or "turnbuckles" to adjust the angle of the wing.

-TJ

Lancer033

there was some good info from a few weeks ago here
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1514001

RX7 KLR

Are you running your car in SM2 or Prepared? Either way the spoiler can not be more than 10" tall. In BP no wings only spoilers but in XP you can have a wing. I think the reason you see the fast SM/SM2 cars with the wings is the end plates. The end plates make more use of the air and help to give some stability. The good news is most of the wings come off with only a few bolts, most of the guys have to take them off to go in the trailer, so you can pull it off when your friends are around.

Solofast

Assuming that it is appropriate for your class, big wings make much bigger downforce than a simple spoiler. That's why the folks in SM are using them. Better to have the wing

End plates extend the "virtual span" of the wing and make it think it is much wider and therefore more effective for a given area. They essentially keep air from "sneaking" from the high pressure side to the low pressure side of the wing. Since most sideplates have sharp edges they would stall out before they added much lateral force, and therefore don't add much lateral stability. To gain lateral effectiveness from a side plate, the leading edge would have to be rounded a good bit. A gurney flap on the endplates (facing outward) helps improve the effectiveness of the wing by drawing more air thru the passage.

XPC5R

I've used both - the flat spoiler helped more for high speed stability (corner entry, slaloms etc). The wing I can feel helping with power down as well. I would do the wing if the ruleset you run with allows it. Either is better than nothing.

davidfarmer

aerfoil wing will give you around 3x as much downforce compared to a spoiler or flat-plane-wing for a given amount of drag.

TedDBere

The wing will give you tons more downforce, but without the splitter you run the risk of pushing like a pig.

Stan, would you run a wing without the splitter? And what can you do to keep it from pushing if you chose to do it that way?

XPC5R

Yes on the wing with no splitter. Some downforce is better than none, and a few of the SM2 cars did just that.
You can increase the rear spring/bar rate to compensate for the push at speed (what I've done). The big gain in a high power car is to be able to use more throttle without wheelspin (and going sideways) in the faster maneuvers - like exiting fast offset gates or slaloms.

tjZ06

FWIW Jason's car is a OSP car so basically he's not limited at all on design/size.

-TJ

Payne

Im planning to go with the Pfadt coilovers and adjustable sway bars so I should be able to dial in the push.

So It looks like a wing is the way to go?

Anywhere sell a reasonably priced C5 wing?

BrianCunningham

Gary Hoffman @ hardbarusa.com sells a carbon fiber road course wing.

Solofast

An important point in selecting and setting up a wing for autocross.

Most aerodynamicists like to talk about L/D, that is the lift to drag ratio, or in other words, what you get in downforce versus what you give in drag. That's real important in road racing, since you have to pay the price for your downforce with drag on the straights.

In lower speed events, like autocross, drag means nothing, since you have plenty of power to pull the wing thru the air. You are looking for a higher maximum lift coefficient, that is how much downforce can you get for the amount of wing that you install. Don't get sucked into the L/D stuff, at the speed you are going max downforce is what you are looking for.

That is why you see multi-element wings and wings running at high angles of attack. Lay in a bunch of area, get a multi-element wing and crank it up to a high angle of attack (short of stall)...

As they said in star wars.... . "Feel the force Luke...."

BrianCunningham

Right, that's why I said it was a road race wing, and even those should be optimized for each course, which is why F1 cars look so different for each race.

BTW Here's the 2006 Street Mod rules for building wings:
Here's a good page on multi element wings

http://www.mh-aerotools.de/airfoils/jf_multi.htm