I have been cursing the net a lot and was curious about aero dynamics. What is the benefit of them and if there any way to add aero to our box shaped car. Like a wide body kit or anything?

 

our cars are about as aerodynamic as a brick.

aero breaks down into drag, and downforce

drag is determined by the Cd (coefficient of drag) and the frontal area

lowering (see other post) actually reduces frontal area slightly (not much)

preventing air from passing beneath the car (e.g. front air dam) can reduce the cf slightly, and also increase downforce by creating an area of reduced pressure beneath the chassis

given that all my motorsports occurs well below 70-80 mph (at which speed aero starts to matter) I haven't explored what can be done

but I bet others have...

let's see who else will weigh in on this one!

BTW - the Mini top speed is drag limited, by which I mean that somewhere between 130 and 145 every bit of power that the car can produce goes into pushing the air out of the way. If the car were slippery (like a Prius for example, which has a Cd of about .26) the car is actually geared for > 150 mph assuming the Works redline of ~7k.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automob...ag_coefficient

 

 

As cmt52663 states the aerodynamics does not take effect until 70-80 mph.
The front spoiler and rear spoiler/wing then start to create the downforce.
Downforce allows the car to corner at a higher speed than without downforce.
The Mini is not aerodynamic at all.
It is a brick, as stated.
All of the spoilers/wings really have little effect on the Mini compared to a car that is designed with aerodynamics in mind, Porsche 911, Ferrari 430 etc.
On a street car, spoilers/wings have no effect other than being an attraction.
Handleing is the advantage that a Mini has over almost anyother car. Getting a well tuned suspension system, performance brakes & tires are the major things to do for a Mini.

 

Several aero aids for the MINI have shown significant improvements in performance, such a the jsart wing tip and parts from Group 4 among others. That said, the biggest improvements are going to be seen on the track (road courses, to be specific) as speeds increase, given that drag has an exponential, not linear, relationship to velocity.

 

You can totally feel aerodynamics when going on a downhill, by my work there is a 2 mile downhill which i usually coast it, before the JCW body kit the car would actually lose speed and i would have to put it back on gear to keep going, after i put the body kit on things i was able to coast all the way to the end, going about 35 miles per hour, before the mini i had a 3 series e46 which actually would coast pretty good, even gain speed in certain areas

 

interesting data point -- at what speed were you starting out with when making these observations?

thanks,

Charlie

Ps: I do believe if I remove the windshield wipers that adds 1-2 mph, perhaps I'm full of it. As evidence of the appalling nature of the airflow at the base of the windscreen they shriek at 125 if left installed!

Pps: Someone took a classic mini to the lake beds, and turned 120 with it by the way... Damned good for a car with half the horsepower we have!

 

I start at around 55mph

 

is why the S drag coefficient is supposedly .02 yet worse than the Justa. I could nominate generally wider wheels (which on a few cars where I have seen it spec'ed may be about .01 delta), perhaps the fog lights and more generally the overall lower bumper configuration, and who knows about the rear spoiler (albeit presumably w/ down force benefits at speed). They are aero pigs to begin with, but another .02 is meaningful, though more so if it were down at < = .30. I wouldn't give any of them up, but it suggests some of the incrementally drag adding areas. Rear wiper is probably another minor one.