The McLaren P1's Spoiler Looks Amazing

"Mochimaster " (Mochimaster) 01/16/2014 at 18:22 • Filed to: Mclaren p1, Aerodynamics

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Period.

EL_ULY > Mochimaster 01/16/2014 at 18:23

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Fasteners?

PRBot II > Mochimaster 01/16/2014 at 18:25

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Bananas for scale.

Battery Tender Unnecessary > Mochimaster 01/16/2014 at 18:26

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Could put one hell of a ice cream sundae in there.

HammerheadFistpunch > Mochimaster 01/16/2014 at 18:28

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Mochimaster > PRBot II 01/16/2014 at 18:31

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LOL, I can't believe someone did that!

PRBot II > Mochimaster 01/16/2014 at 18:40

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It was important. For science.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Mochimaster 01/16/2014 at 18:48

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?2?4853

I'm sorry but this is all I can see.

04sneaky - Boxers. Blowers. Bikes. And bitches. > EL_ULY 01/16/2014 at 18:49

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DEFINITELY FASTENERS!

Shame on Mochi for not seeing those first!

Mochimaster > 04sneaky - Boxers. Blowers. Bikes. And bitches. 01/16/2014 at 18:52

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SHAME ON ME

Orange Exige > Mochimaster 01/16/2014 at 19:32

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It's begging to be sat on.

Danimalk - Drives a Slow Car Fast > Mochimaster 01/16/2014 at 20:33

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But can you do this?

Because if you can't, I'm totally canceling my order for one.

Gizmo - The Only Good Gremlin, but don't feed me after Midnight > Mochimaster 01/16/2014 at 23:41

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I'll admit I'm a n00b when it comes to automotive aero science, but why raise the wind so high? Wouldn't the turbulence generated by the struts and the hole it opens up negate the gains of raising the spoiler above the attached air along the body? I can understand it being that high as a speed brake, but downforce gains???

IDROVEAPICKUPTRUCK > Gizmo - The Only Good Gremlin, but don't feed me after Midnight 01/16/2014 at 23:58

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You want the wing in clean air, unmolested by what has come off the body. Also getting it extended further back away from the wheels increases the moment distance, essentially exerting a greater torque on the car for the amount of downforce generated, resulting in more weight on the tires.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > Danimalk - Drives a Slow Car Fast 01/16/2014 at 23:58

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Considering they have to trim the angle around 160 mph because the downforce would bend the suspension if they left it in the full downforce position I will assume you can do that.

Bandit > Gizmo - The Only Good Gremlin, but don't feed me after Midnight 01/16/2014 at 23:59

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When the superbird was being designed they said the tallness of the wing put it in clean air. What that does, I don't know. But it sounds official.

Jayhawk Jake > Bandit 01/17/2014 at 00:11

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If it's in turbulent air, meaning air that's getting messed up by the car, it's not as efficient or effective. Raising it high into clean air greatly improves the amount of downforce

desertdog5051 > Mochimaster 01/17/2014 at 05:44

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I put in a call to Adrian Newey, but he has not got back with me yet. :)

JACU - I've got bonifides. > Mochimaster 01/17/2014 at 07:26

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Now if this were a Corvette, someone would complain about the exposed fasteners.

Chteelers > Mochimaster 01/17/2014 at 08:31

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Exposed fastener is exposed.

briannutter1 > Mochimaster 01/17/2014 at 09:42

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You may know a lot about this already, but I'll hit on the basics. Although we think about the car punching through the air, the bigger problem is the wake created behind the car...this is literally a vacuum pulling you backwards. To minimize the wake, we try to keep air adhering to the surface rather eddying. If you look at a 2d pic (frontal area), you'll see the driver's canopy is a big part of the frontal area. To keep air adhering, we would like a maximum angle of divergence of 7-10 degrees. We can't have a 30 foot long tail on a car (except Bonneville), we the best we can do is taper back from the drivers door and chop off the rear very square (think c5 corvette where they sacrificed style for aero). So to get to your point, why is the wing so high on a STI or Evo? It's because the canopy is large and the area directly behind the window is billowing dirty air. Wings require smooth air to work, so the higher and further back from the rear window, the more effective they are. Also, the NHRA drag race spoilers effectively lengthen the car and do a lot to keep air from spilling down and even reversing and packing underneath the car (creating lift). In effect, the P1 goes from a road race wing location to a NHRA spoiler location to trade downforce for reduced drag as speed increases.

There are a ton of great images of this on Google images. Type in "aero" "cfd" "string testing" "wake" and you'll see images from a lot of makes and models. Ecomodder.com, landracing.com and others all have interesting threads.

Evan, Pope Of Jalopnik by Self-Appointment > Mochimaster 01/18/2014 at 02:29

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It does. It might be my favorite part of the car.

Evan, Pope Of Jalopnik by Self-Appointment > Danimalk - Drives a Slow Car Fast 01/18/2014 at 02:30

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Well, first I would assume so anyway, but I read a number on the order of 2500 pounds or something that the wing must stand under peak load. So yeah, you can probably do that.