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JannerSy, nice work! What material did you use for the splitter plate? Looks like ACP, same as what I used. How is it holding up?
I already have the GP2 tray under the engine. I have some foam board and carbon fiber cloth, I'm thinking about taking the lip off the bottom of the air dam and extending the front edge a few inches to create a DIY splitter. Nothing as big as yours though since it's my daily driver.
JannerSy, nice work! What material did you use for the splitter plate? Looks like ACP, same as what I used. How is it holding up?
I already have the GP2 tray under the engine. I have some foam board and carbon fiber cloth, I'm thinking about taking the lip off the bottom of the air dam and extending the front edge a few inches to create a DIY splitter. Nothing as big as yours though since it's my daily driver.
Its alumite, road sign material.
Its decent. Had an off a few races ago and smacked the barrier. The edge of the spitter just bent. A normal splitter would have broke but instead able to just ben it flat again
quick update - since mid-March and working from home all the time I have gone through maybe 4 tanks of gas. I hardly drive anymore. Last tank was 34.3 (calculated from the odometer and the gas pump to fill up) and the long term average is up as well. Looks like it is helping!
Nice work on the Mini aero, congrats. Rough numbers, about 1/3 of the aero drag on most cars is upper body, 1/3 underbody and 1/3 from cooling drag (radiators/oil coolers). Squaw Valley is headed down the right path on measuring drag, coast down testing is very effective although you have to work hard on controlling the white noise parameters (road slope, wind, temperature, rolling resistance). Air temps will affect your coast down numbers more than almost any change. That can be mitigated via testing in same weather conditions or using a drone car as a baseline runner. Another technique is big data samples, although that can be a challenge. One instrument you will want is a pitot tube, mounted at least a foot above the car. Same white noise effects will apply to using MAP or axle torque data. On using mpg numbers, air density will effect the results both for air drag and possibly engine throttle position if your using that as a reference. Not surprising to see numbers change based on fuel batch, average air temps, etc. Coast down testing does eliminate that variable. A great place to do aero coast down tests are private airports, some do have long enough runways and flat enough surfaces to get decent data.
Keep up the good work, the underbody panels look great, they work. A diffuser will not reduce drag as it does create some negative, although with a very good L/D ratio.
Good luck and have fun, great work so far.
I improved the aerodynamics of my MINI Cooper SE by removing the fake hood scoop (just put the week-old original hood on ebay starting at a buck).
Electric cars don't need hood scoops.
I like the scoreless look and the dedication to make it happen.
Electric cars definitely don't need non-functional hood scoops. The SE could use more actual cooling, though, as evidenced by its poor showing on track with the One Lap Youtube channel where it couldn't deliver more than 50% power for much of the lap. Kind of a bummer, but not something that will affect most people. They'll have to fix that for any electric JCWs / GPs, though.
