Here's an idea (DIY active aero)

"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa) 05/16/2016 at 12:42 • Filed to: None

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What about a wing, mounted to the rear fenders of a car, supported on each corner by a linear actuator and connected to an arduino which is reading the vehicle’s speed, brake status, and steering angle. Above 40mph the wing raises up into the airstream and starts doing wing stuff. If braking with the wing up it pitches forward a-la Veyron to act as an air brake. If severe steering angles are detected the wing twists to act as an airbrake for the inside corner of the car. There would also be a sensor for the trunk so the wing moves out of the way of the lid when someone goes to put their junk in said trunk.

Thoughts? Linear actuators aren’t all that expensive on Amazon, and I have enough C++ experience I could possibly make this work.

Biggus Dickus (RevsBro) > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 05/16/2016 at 12:46

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Probably wouldn’t have a worthwhile effect until you are going at Criminal speeds.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Biggus Dickus (RevsBro) 05/16/2016 at 12:47

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Who cares? It would look dope as hell and active aero gives me an enormous engineer boner.

chaozbandit > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 05/16/2016 at 12:48

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So.... a budget Huayra?

Biggus Dickus (RevsBro) > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 05/16/2016 at 12:48

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Your time. Your Money. Do as you please.

d15b > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 05/16/2016 at 12:48

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Do it! Build a portfolio!

Jayhawk Jake > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 05/16/2016 at 12:51

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What you described really isn’t any different than active aero on any production car. It’s just entirely pointless. For braking it probably won’t make any appreciable distance at normal road speeds, and increasing downforce with steering angle would probably just create drag and slow you down unless you’re going quite fast.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Jayhawk Jake 05/16/2016 at 12:53

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Would probably change the “aero steering” to only happen on braking, since it would have a (probably negligable) braking effect itself. Honestly any actual aero effects this would have would be completely by accident, mostly it is just “because I can and it would look cool”, though the air brake thing seems like it would be fairly likely to just rip the wing off of the car before it would produce any appreciable braking force.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > chaozbandit 05/16/2016 at 12:54

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Yup. Or that crazy active-aero Gran Turismo concept car.

JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 05/16/2016 at 12:55

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linear actuators may be cheap, but check out weather-proof, fast, high-torque linear actuators. If you’re talking about a useful amount of air-brake/down-force you’re gonna need an actuator with 500+ pounds of force... those start to get expensive real quick (edit: a quick amazon search indicates two or more lower-power actuators may, in fact, be quite a bit cheaper...) then you need to a wing and mount... I’m not saying it isn’t possible, the control systems are probably the easy part... just that it’s probably pretty expensive for something that will have minimal effect at legal speeds and require a good bit of custom fab.

you should totally do it.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t 05/16/2016 at 12:57

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“This is silly expensive and useless. Do it” You just described my mental process on pretty much every project I attempt.

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 05/16/2016 at 13:03

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The HSR?

Jayhawk Jake > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 05/16/2016 at 13:14

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I honestly think that you’d end up with actuators not strong enough to actuate the wing under load.

A deploying wing like a Porsche is fine. That would be ‘effective’ in the sense that it reduces drag when stored. The rest is pointless.

MultiplaOrgasms > BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. 05/16/2016 at 13:53

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That one predates Gran Turismo 1 by eight years. Jeep’s contribution to the VGT program on the other hand...

TheRealBicycleBuck > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 05/16/2016 at 14:08

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Sounds like you want a fancier version of this:

http://jalopnik.com/how-about-a-19…

Flyboy is FAA certified insane > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 05/16/2016 at 15:54

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I was thinking how to do this for the Chumpcar.

dsigned001 - O.R.C. hunter > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 05/16/2016 at 17:16

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Don’t listen to the haters. The limits of this are not related to engineering, but likely getting in to trouble with the law.

As has been mentioned, a normal size wing won’t do much, because you aren’t going fast enough. But that just means you need a bigger control surface:

Now, what I might recommend is actually a spoiler on the roof that functions like an airbrake. The primary function would actually be downforce, but if it was the size of the whole roof (for example), it would be easily large enough to be noticeable in slowing down from freeway speeds as well.

There are other, more externally subtle active aero things you could do as well.
An active grill block (that only engages at freeway speeds), or a rear splitter that alters its angle based on speed, or (my personal favorite) — an air pump sucking air from the bottom of the car (you’ll like want a side skirt for that one.

One final note—you will absolutely want to upgrade your brakes, tires and engine cooling if you achieve anything noticeable. All parts of the car are going to be working harder, and the last thing you would want is for your car to cook its brakes on a mountain road.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > dsigned001 - O.R.C. hunter 05/16/2016 at 18:14

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Sides have officially entered orbit.

briannutter1 > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 05/16/2016 at 19:37

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Had it. Proposed it. Made the mistake of giving a statement to a patent lawyer in Indiana but didn’t show a working prototype within a year after the discussion. Coincidence maybe but Aeromotions releases a high level university team behind the patent with a nearly dead stupid accurate view of my user interface.

Nauraushaun > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 05/16/2016 at 23:27

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Do you have a wind tunnel to test that it’s actually providing aerodynamic benefit? It seems like it’s a black art, and if you aren’t going to test it it probably won’t work how you think it will.