Downforce (or lack of it)
unotaz
So here is an interesting topic for all you car fans.......what is downforce and how much of it do you have on your car?
This topic came across when I was reading the Sports Auto Supertest on the Ferrari 458. In Sports Auto Supertest, one of the testing criteria is the car's downforce (or lift). Sports Auto supertest uses Mercedes static wind tunnel to perform this test at 200km/h (or 124mph). In the case of the Ferrari 458, the downforce shown was shockingly low. It had 32kg of **gasp** LIFT in the front and 31kg of downforce in the rear. This result is very far off from Ferrari's own claim of 140kg of downforce at 200km/h and 360kg at 300km/h.
So in the best Purists fashion, I went to Sport Auto's online database and did more research on other cars:
The SLS had 41kg of LIFT in the front and 8kg of downforce in the rear (@ 200km/h). Obviously, as the speed goes up, the respective figures will increase proportionally as well. This just proves that the Mercedes commercial where the SLS was driving upside down in the tunnel was a total BS!! LOL
The Mclaren did rather ok and it showed that Mclaren does not lie when it comes to their factory numbers. Mclaren claims that the MP4-12C produces 120kg of downforce at 186mph. Sports Auto supertest showed a 2kg of downforce in the front and 62kg of downforce in the rear at 200km/h. Using Square's law, the 12C will produce 120kg of downforce at approximately 272.27km/h (or 170.17mph), based on Sports Auto's number at 200km/h.
Other notables were:
Lamborghini Aventador 28kg of lift (Front) and 73kg of downforce (Rear)
Porsche GT3RS (997 MK2) 2kg of lift (Front) and 10kg of downforce (Rear)
Comments:
patrick_y May 26th, 2013-11:55
Good to know! Good research! Any Porsche 911 driver who has driven the car at high speed will notice that the car feels a little light in the front, especially through the steering. This is a common problem that Porsche needs to adjust and reduce. The Mclaren's numbers are impressive...
AV May 27th, 2013-14:54
I wonder if MB has jumped the shark in regard to its exotic car development Thanks UNOTAZ for your real world experiences and research in regard to SLS and MP4 driving experiences. If I understand the stats correctly, the SLS has more lift than downforce which implies to me that the retractable spoiler if more a "gizmo" than prac...
unotaz May 27th, 2013-22:27
The SLS rear spoiler... is actually functional, because there is 8kg of downforce in the back. The front end is where is the lift is happening (all 41kg lift @ 124mph). Getting actual front downforce is very difficult because that's where the wind hits the car first. It's always...
AV May 28th, 2013-00:52
Thanks for clarification for the neophyte Although I misinterpreted the implications of your prior post, my comment was intended to be tongue-in-cheek about marketing hyperbole, i.e., unlikely barrel roll commercial, and performance claims that remind me of over-inflated claims of monitor size ba...
ThomasM May 28th, 2013-16:11
Thanks, Unotaz, for the specs. Interesting note on the GT3RS... the WanderingPurist told me he specifically didn't want the front end lift because 1. long term reliability concerns 2. the added weight on the front end. Yet, an acquaintance, once national karting champion (and so, in his mind, qualifies him as a very g...
unotaz May 29th, 2013-22:07
LOL! No worries, your GT3RS is still one badass car! It's interesting though to see new sports cars that are coming out with "active aerodynamics" like the 991 Turbo. Of course, the Mclaren P1 and the Ferrari "LaFerrari" will introduce a new breed of active ae...
ThomasM May 28th, 2013-16:07
PuristS perspectives... Hi, AV, Thanks for being a supporter over all these years. Something that I find to be fairly unique (is that an oxymoron?) on ThePuristS and PuristSPro is that while we are fans of the brands and their products, we are not blinded fan-BOYS who can see no...
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