Got Down force?

[blkcorvair]

I had played around with a new exhaust set up tonight and wanted to take the car out to test it. Well its only like 40+ degrees or so outside, so I taped up the Lower airdam holes for the oil cooler and strapped a piece of cardboard over about 1/2 the front grille. (So I could restrict some cool air and get the car up to a good operating temp.

Well I hit about 75 on the highway and my hood sucked in! Luckily its fiberglass so as soon as I let of the gas it popped out. No harm no fowl. Just giggled a bit.

 

[Michael Oritt]

And here I just finished fabricating a metal cover for the oil cooler air inlet on the Elva to get temps up at next week's Turkey Bowl.

Do I now need to be thinking about ground effects?

 

[blkcorvair]

nope nope. You dont have all that quafie torque pushing your nose up :wink:

j/k

 

[Hap Waldrop]

Scott, I added stifferners to the car I built with Spridgetech body work, I went to the local model store and bought some balsa wood strips and glassed them on the underside of the hood, I had to do this with most fiberlgass hoods I ran over the years because they started to destort and flex at speed.

EDit/addition, just rember to add your stiffner in location under the hood that you have plenty of clearence. I seen on did one time on a 1275 engined midget that the strip hit right on top of the twon SU dashpot caps,, so thake underhood clearence in mind, while this won't make the hoff much thicker, some clearences may already be tight.

 

[blkcorvair]

Hap, Very good idea. I hadnt thought of that. The hood is extremley flexible. Next time I play with glass Ill have to do that. thanks for the tip!

 

[billspohn]

And here I just finished fabricating a metal cover for the oil cooler air inlet on the Elva to get temps up at next week's Turkey Bowl.

Do I now need to be thinking about ground effects?

Geez, you guys are getting fancy with custom cooler covers. A strip of racers tape always worked for me. Of course it didn't add the road-hugging weight of a solid metal cover.... :thumbsup:

 

[blkcorvair]

Blue painters tape here

 

[Michael Oritt]

Bill--

A 6" x 18" piece of 20 guage added about 8 ounces and $5 (my labor for radiusing the corners and rattle-can spraying was free) and it WILL stay in place

 

[aeronca65t]

Interesting...

I pulled all the reinforcing metal out of an old, spare, rusted hood ("bonnet" to you Brits) for my race car (the original hood was perfect and I hated to ruin it).
Now the hood I use is just one thin sheet of metal, and at 90+ mph, it used to "bend in" all the time.

I never really fixed it, but when I switched the car to vintage, I pulled the standard windshield and it was "fixed". :laugh:

 

[ThinkRacing]

Interesting...

I never really fixed it, but when I switched the car to vintage, I pulled the standard windshield and it was "fixed". :laugh:

Nial, your car looks really good.