not sure about that. didnt see anything in j's catalogue for higher brackets. voltex has it though.

 

[QUOTE]Most of what I know about aero is from reading F1 articles.

 

hmm...interesting idea. but considering the end plate is shorter for the j's it might be a tuning tip vortex at the risk of higher probability of low/hi pressure airflow interaction as u put it

 

The interaction will be there as there will always be a spanwise component of flow velocity that will try to spill over, but in some cases stopping it with a huge endplate may mean affecting the efficiency more than just allowing it to spill over a bit. In other words, they're not tuning it at the risk of increased downwash, they're doing it knowing they're increasing downwash to improve efficiency in some other way... i.e. a tradeoff.

This is all speculation, of course, as I've had no part in the development or testing of this product. The entire realm of low Reynolds number aerodynamics has its intricacies that tend to have counterintuitive results, so what I'm saying may be spot on or on the opposite side of reality.

 

Exactly. This is why real world testing for these types of products would be so valuable. I'm still surprised none of the manufacturers have done any.

 

Wind tunnel time and CFD codes are very expensive, so unless a company has millions of dollars to spend or expects to be able to sell these parts for a considerable amount, TLAR engineering and ass dyno testing is just about the most plausible thing for them to do. You can do your best based on your knowledge of theory and experience with previous designs, but getting out there and actually testing these things in technical detail is very very difficult, especially considering the relatively low price these things fetch. I'm merely offering another possible reason as to why the endplate was designed the way it was that nobody had previously mentioned.

 

digitalHorizon, nice seeing you here! I learn a great deal from you.. in regards to aero.

Voltex has developed / financed a wind tunnel with a local university...

 

mmm... flow visualization.

The University of Tokyo has a really good low speed aero research department as well, I've seen some good work come out of there. Very little of it is automotive based but it is still very interesting. There's a guy at UIUC by the name of Michael Selig who has dedicated most of his career to low Re flows and has published some very interesting papers on multi-element wing profiles for low speed aero. I used his S1223 airfoil for the formula SAE car I helped design in college and even used it for the heavy lift RC plane I built. Selig/Eppler airfoils are probably some of the most applicable to the S2000 and sport compact market and many companies (i.e. Hasport) use one or the other almost exclusively in designing the main profile aero for their race cars.

When asked "why spend so much for JDM parts?" the answer is pretty much the pictures above. Now if I could just figure out a way to put aerodynamic dumbo ears on my Honda, I could be as slow as Button and Barichello...

 

But as a general conclusion, I think we should all get world of outlaw wings and put them on our roofs.

 

Great info just listening to u talk at BW

Great pics Rob!