Front Winglets on Racing Cars

R

RFds

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Sep 1, 2008
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12
Location
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Car(s)
92 Acura Integra
Having watched sports car racing for a few years, i've recently noticed the addtion of a pair of fin-shaped winglets to the front corners of racing cars. The first one I was aware of was the recently introduced new version of the Audi A4 DTM car (which someone commented would be incredibly deadly to pedestrians if ever adapted onto road cars). Im wondering if anyone could identify the purpose of these winglets (as i can perceive no downforce that could be generated with the wings)?

Here is a picture of an Acura ARX-01b with some rediculously hideous and last-minute winglets.

03_LongBeach_Acura15.jpg
 
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Unless you are an aerodynamicist, it's difficult to tell what affect one small piece has on the overall aerodynamics of a car. However, I remember reading that certain racing cars had winglets on the front to realign airflow to maximize the effect of the aero bits at the back.
 
They do generate downforce, but my guess is that they also work in tandem with the shape of the prototype's body, scooping and guiding the air over the wheel arches and over to the rear wing (or the turbo inlets, if it's an Audi or a Peugeot).

They were used by Mercedes-Benz as an emergency fix in 1999 at Le Mans. But they didn't work because the car itself was flawed.
 
The canards? I thought they just added down force to the front of the car.
 
In terms of the ridiculous vanes and aerofoils that have been popping up all over the Formula 1 cars this season. All I can say is that they've got too much money to spend on CFD simulations and wind tunnel testing. They're basically there to optimise flow over the car. They'll see that there's airflow that might impinge on the rear wing, or the radiators in a less-than-optimal way. To solve that they'll go further upstream; ie. the front of the car, and add devices to alter the airflow there, to correct the flow 'problems' further downstream.

As for the vanes on the above Acura looks like they're meant to kick the airflow out from the tyres and wheel arches. They'll probably also redirect the flow upwards to create pure downforce.
 
It's just another body piece to generate pressure on the front, increasing front tire contract patch and giving more bite.

Aerodynamics are complicated. So we will probably never know the full extent of their purpose, even if we managed to get someone to explain it.
 
They're for creating downforce, not for smoothing out airflow, they just cause excess drag in high-speed setups. Looks like a street track in the first pic, typical high downforce circuit. You don't see big diveplanes/canards in Le Mans for example as it's a high speed circuit. Canards and louvers are a pretty simple way of controlling downforce/drag in the front, like different wing setups and wing angles are for the rear.

908 at Le Mans (?)

470_pug7_mtc_lm24.jpg


908 at Sebring, higher downforce setup

Peugeot908Sebring2008-MF26.jpg


Peugeot908Sebring2008-MF27.jpg
 
Thank you everyone for your answers. Now that I look more carefully at my Le Mans 24H footage, seems like many of the LMP1 cars were already running those winglets/canards/dive planes.
(Although no where near the same size as current racer. But I suppose the circuut de la Sarthe being so fast also reduces the size of aero components needed. )

Thanx again.
 
havocwreaker said:
In terms of the ridiculous vanes and aerofoils that have been popping up all over the Formula 1 cars this season. All I can say is that they've got too much money to spend on CFD simulations and wind tunnel testing. They're basically there to optimise flow over the car. They'll see that there's airflow that might impinge on the rear wing, or the radiators in a less-than-optimal way. To solve that they'll go further upstream; ie. the front of the car, and add devices to alter the airflow there, to correct the flow 'problems' further downstream.

As for the vanes on the above Acura looks like they're meant to kick the airflow out from the tyres and wheel arches. They'll probably also redirect the flow upwards to create pure downforce.
Click to expand...

What he said. There was a really interesting article in Racecar Engineering maybe 2 months ago (sept or aug issue) all about front end aero and what it's for. Sadly the article hasn't been uploaded to their site yet other wise i could link you.
 
^ - interesting, i shall have to try and find a copy of that.
Interestingly, the article posted by jack_christie says
"Large dive planes have been added to the nose to further augment front end grip."
or are we just talking about apples and oranges in terms of canards vs dive plane wings?
 
RFds said:
^ - interesting, i shall have to try and find a copy of that.
Interestingly, the article posted by jack_christie says
"Large dive planes have been added to the nose to further augment front end grip."
or are we just talking about apples and oranges in terms of canards vs dive plane wings?
Click to expand...

You mean apples to apples? Haha.

Downforce is there simply to make the tires fatter on the road. This means more grip, especially at high speed. There is no other use for it. All wings are the same, though they vary in effectiveness and shape. Any other kind of channeling or sculpting on the car is to reduce drag or guide air towards ram intakes. That's the simple part of aerodynamics.

A big prevalence in recent years, especially in F1, are vertical wings. Not too many people know what these do. The common theory is that they provide high speed stability. So, if the car's rear end likes to step out in high speed corners, adding larger ears to the rear spoiler may help. But they have other uses. BMW and Ferrari have them on the sides of the cars to help scoop more air into the pod intakes.

I think vertical wings are a fad, personally. They'll be gone soon enough anyway.
 
This months Racecar Engineering has another article about flying sportscar aero
 
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