Race Car Aerodynamics

In this video, we will be discussing race car aerodynamics.

Frontal area
If you want to reduce aerodynamic drag as much as you can, you want to keep the frontal area as low as you can. That is why race cars are quite small & low, very close to the ground.
Click here to learn more on aerodynamic drag:

Front splitter
At the front, the air hits the car. This generates a high-pressure zone pushing onto the car, but also onto the front splitter. The front splitter is a flat plate in front of the car that feels and captures this high-pressure air and pulls the car downwards generating down force.

Dive planes
Dive planes are the curved planes at the front wheel arches. They make sure that the wind jumps up, pushing the front of the car downwards as a result.

Wheel arch ventilation
The front wheels rotate at a high velocity creating a high-pressure air zone. If you ventilate that high pressure air at the top of the front wheel arches, this will push down the front wheel arches, especially as this air collides with the incoming air in front of the car.

Top air intake
We want to make sure that we provide high-pressure air to the engine, because that increases the power output. We can do so by positioning the air intakes high above the car in the free stream of the air to provide good capturing of air when it hits them.

Rear wing
This wing is comparable to the wing of an airplane, only it’s flipped upside down to not pull the car upward but to push it downward onto the asphalt. You want to make sure that the wing is positioned high enough so that it is in the free stream of the air and not in the dirty, turbulent air that is generated by the air intakes or other geometry of the car upstream.

Diffuser
The diffuser is the part that improves the transition from airflow underneath the car to the wake behind the car. If done right, this can strongly accelerate the air underneath the car creating a low-pressure zone pulling the car downward onto the ground. Click here to learn more on how a car diffuser works:

Aerodynamic balance
This is the ratio between the down force at the front wheels and the down force at the rear wheels. You can play with this a lot in function of the track you want to race at. It is important as it influences the car’s handling, for example understeer and oversteer.

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The AirShaper videos cover the basics of aerodynamics (aerodynamic drag, drag & lift coefficients, boundary layer theory, flow separation, reynolds number...), simulation aspects (computational fluid dynamics, CFD meshing, ...) and aerodynamic testing (wind tunnel testing, flow visualization, ...).
We then use those basics to explain the aerodynamics of (race) cars (aerodynamic efficiency of electric vehicles, aerodynamic drag, downforce, aero maps, formula one aerodynamics, ...), drones and airplanes (propellers, airfoils, electric aviation, eVTOLS, ...), motorcycles (wind buffeting, motogp aerodynamics, ...) and more!

[LCrBr_]

Hello Wouter, Great video. Could you explain me how the effect of suction by fans affects the aerodynamics of a vehicle as for exmaple the chaparral 2j and how active aerodynamics in a car works, thank you

[Alex-gkgu]

i love this guy, concise and informative

[lindareu]

Thanks for your channell! Would be great if you could make a video about the aerodynamics of velomobiles!

[krel]

this might be the oddest question? in tamiya mini 4wd racing which car design has the best aerodynamics?

[guzforce]

Hellow! Really nice video! Can you make part-2 and or add side skirts informations, together with variables wings?
Thank you very much!