Mike Furman@Criswell

One of the coolest 6 minute video's I have ever seen. Old you tube video of 6 Generations of Corvettes undergoing wind tunnel testing. Now I need to find the C7 testing to add to this!

http://www.corvetteblogger.com/2015/...unnel-testing/

Mike Furman
Criswell Chevrolet
corvettefurman.com
301-212-4420

63Corvette

Cool..............and useful video. Thanks for posting Mike

C-1 Generation 2

Interesting!
Sure wish they would have shown the test with convertibles top down.

Mike Furman@Criswell

I thought so.

Mike

Fawndeuce

Cool, thanks.
I was fortunate enough to be in the GM wind tunnel when they had a stock bodied C6 Z06 race car in for testing. Very interesting, apparently if you fold the mirrors in to reduce drag, they pop back out at about 180 MPH.
Coincidentally the aerodynamisist explained to us that an incredible amount of time is spent on mirror design and placement, both for aerodynamic reasons, and especially to minimise wind noise in the cabin.



Paul

Mike Furman@Criswell

Great info!!!! Thanks.

Mike Furman

3JsVette

What's really interesting is back in the 80s it was about the low coefficient of drag. Now as top speeds have grown so much it's about lift and downforce as well. You can't go 200 MPH is the tires don't stay planted to the road. Like the modern era design or not there's a reason the C7 looks the way it does.

Revfan

IF its not too much trouble... could somebody explain to me what I am watching? I understand its a wind tunnel and all, but what it it representing? Smoke going over the windshield... how can you tell by looking at that if the design is good or not?

66jack

It represents 'air flow' and looks for turbulance at key points..mirrors/wipers/headlights...

My 2c's

GUSTO14

Thank you Mike that was terrific to watch and very graphically illustrates one reason that the '84 off the showroom floor could reach 150 mph while the '82 with essentially the same drive train could not get to 130.

Good luck... GUSTO

AZDoug

I would be happy to know the Z06 and with Z07 option Cd and frontal area. And exact front and rear lift (downforce).

Since the cd and frontal are known on the other cars, it is useful comparison info.

Doug

Mike Furman@Criswell

I agree, that would be great info to know. I will post if I ever come across something.

Mike Furman

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Mike Furman@Criswell

A wind tunnel is a tool used in aerodynamic research to study the effects of air moving past solid objects. A wind tunnel consists of a tubular passage with the object under test mounted in the middle. Air is made to move past the object by a powerful fan system or other means. Wind-tunnel testing was applied to automobiles, not so much to determine aerodynamic forces per se but more to determine ways to reduce the power required to move the vehicle on roadways at a given speed. In these studies, the interaction between the road and the vehicle plays a significant role, and this interaction must be taken into consideration when interpreting the test results. In an actual situation the roadway is moving relative to the vehicle but the air is stationary relative to the roadway, but in the wind tunnel the air is moving relative to the roadway, while the roadway is stationary relative to the test vehicle. Some automotive-test wind tunnels have incorporated moving belts under the test vehicle in an effort to approximate the actual condition, and very similar devices are used in wind tunnel testing of aircraft take-off and landing configurations.


Mike Furman

Frankie the Fink

Look at the C2 test with headlights down and then up. The smoke stream in the first case doesn't get turbulent (discounting the side mirror) until moving past the end of the car; with the headlights up you can see the turbulence is moved up to the headlight area. These are disturbances in the air the moving car has to 'fight through' to make headway at significant speed. The farther forward that occurs on the car the more it affects things. They even did it on clay models using tape and/or oil droplets on the car body instead of a smoke stream.

If you get bored some day read up on the Wright brothers aircraft wind tunnel tests - pretty amazing for a couple of bicycle mechanics.

ChattanoogaJSB

My rudimentary understanding of wind tunnel tests would suggest this video would be much more telling if you would see the turbulence as the wind passes the rear of the car. It has always been my understanding that the drag at the rear is hard to get efficient. This is a reason many say motorcycles are not dramatically more fuel efficient than they already are- the shape of the riders back and back of the motorcycle creating drag.
Also many land speed racers in the 80's found the third generation firebird with its small rear fascia to be an exceptionally efficient exampl of a factory shape.

SDVette

Cool video.

I"m not a aero-engineer (although I play one on TV!), but I'd say this video illustrates the evolution from aesthetic-based design, to performance-based design. As mentioned above, below 100ish MPH, it's all about reducing drag.. but as you get faster, you have to worry about downforce.. and creating downforce requires drag.

My understanding is that the C5 was the first car to have a 'kansas flat' underside. At high speed, this actually creates a low-pressure area under the car, adding downforce.

Good stuff!