Who's the Baddest B/SA now?

[SSDiv6]

Originally Posted by Paradigm Shift

If all else was equal, I'll take the 7-10% reduction in drag coefficient.

Interesting comment regarding the hood scoop. I did the calculations on many Super Class scoop designs and determined the cars would be faster with the scoop reversed or no scoop at all. One racer even admitted that was the case based on his testing but thought it looked cool so he left it as-is.

Hold a flat palm out the window at 60, 70 or 100 mph and you'll quickly see how much force is applied. It certainly eats power.

You are correct, many years ago when I lived and worked in Reno, Nevada, one of my friends was the pilot for the Dago Red P-51 Mustang race airplane. When they modified the under fuselage scoop that cools the radiator to a smaller and more aerodynamic scoop, almost half the size, the airplane picked up an additional 18 MPH with no other changes due to the drag reduction.

In a race car, in addition to the drag based on the drag coefficient number of the particular body, you have to deal with two other issues; lift and ground effects.

In an airplane, the ground effect only occurs while accelerating during take-off and decelerating during the landing, with drag effecting the most during the takeoff. There is no ground effects after level flight and lift is zero.

However, in a race car, you have both the lift and ground effects influencing the car during the whole run and also having an impact on the acceleration and handling of the car. Then add a big scoop to the hood and now you have another additional item effecting the performance of the vehicle.