Is Drag the Enemy? Drag vs. Downforce on a Straight Explained!

Today we look at Downforce vs. Drag, which is somehting that many people have misconceptions about. Often increasing both drag and downforce can lead to your car being quicker in a straight line, depending of course on specifics of the vehicle.

[thomas]

Man this channel is like a cool engineering explained 😀

[kierowik]

great video. So many times tried to explain why I'm going for high downforce setup with my stock power Z, and after lap times nobody believes it's just 280whp

[maaz]

i have the same keyboard as





i feel smart now

[marineninga]

Drag is the enemy! If I have to see another dude in a dress and heels again I will lose it!

[Hipsterinbenzworld]

Video idea: Drag racing wings? "decks" as they call em? :)

[flawns]

can you share that excell file? I would like to throw random numbers at it and see what happens. Is it VBA or just excell formulas?

[MyLonewolf]

OMG I HAVE THAT SAME EXACT KEYBOARD!
Also
Drag is the enemy
Downforce is the friend
But downforce also likes to bring drag with him because of emotional ties

Also a lot of drag cars especially when you get into radial mostly run wings to reduce drag because they have so much mechanical grip and you're pushing from a standing start

[Jon-petq]

Thank you for another great video. Would you be able to do another video or include a link on how to build the excel spreadsheet you have please?

[nd]

What about the increase in rolling resistance from the tyres when you add downforce? Obviously the additional normal force will increase the energy being absorbed/converted to heat by the tyres as they roll/deform, but does this have any significance in the real world?

[JBLAW]

I really like your common sense explanations. I have a 1940 Ford Coupe LSR car I run at Bonneville. Big body, ow HP (original Flathead @250 hp) so low drag is VIP. Please do a video on Stock bodied LSR cars. Maybe you could show up a Bonneville this August and hang out. Lotsa aero topics there!

[steveb]

Great videos. They help a lot for people trying to understand how all of this stuff works together. We totally screwed up the aero on a 2018 Mustang GT we had by altering the front of the car too much. We now have 2 GT350s with stock aero. We just installed an OEM Gurney Flap on the 19 GT350. Everyone I talked to said to leave it off of the car unless you are tracking the car, but after watching this video, it sounds like it isn't a problem with the additional drag it makes on the rear. I am just wondering if the front gets lift with the additional drag and downforce on the rear with the Gurney Flap.

[Bunjee]

Not looking for DF I'm actually trying to kill as much drag as possible with my truck, I'm just looking for a few extra MPG

[Demongornot]

So with low power we have to make compromise and probably use different settings for each tracks depending on how many straight/corners and their speed/length while with high power we can go with downforce as a crazy to have enough to reduce the track altitude by few meters after 10 laps :D

[dirklangohr]

I'm stunned. How are you able to do this Excel? For me the information that somebody is able to create such a Excel (or the one you used in your video about from what speed downforce starts working) is the most suprising information giving in the videos... big probs, wish I would be able to create something like this too.

[vfors]

Nice video as usual! I'm currently working with a Swedish TA car for a school project and it would be interesting to do similar calculations as you do with your excel script. Could you possibly share what equations you use or hit on where to read up on the subject?

[smds]

Have you ever done any analysis on a race car with an exposed rollcage, like a Lotus 7 or Caterham? Im trying to understand the dynamics involved with my car, in messing the flow up topside with disturbances from multiple round tubes?

[Braemstjuh]

Also, downforce gets more heat into the tyres! (I assume this effect is most pronounced in light, high downforce cars?)

[johndeerman]

Have you ever evaluated the Ariel Atom? I wonder if you could improve the aero on the open chassis car.
I ask this because my son and Ii (he's eight and I'm the engineer) race rally style a half size version with a motorcycle engine.

[OneisneO]

Hey, are you solving an EDO on Excel?? I did sth similar using one of MATLAB's variable step solvers. Maybe using euler's method with a step small enough?

Really interesting results, drag and downforce can be really counter intuitive some times.

[someengineer]

does down force affect the speed of a car if it has a jet propulsion as the power source?
I'm thinking down force would improve stability which would allow for higher speeds maybe?