Functional Aero Kit

[smc]

Well, I have serious plans to build my SVX as a hillclimb car / track beast. One of the issues im addressing is the aerodynamics of the car. Currently, she does not produce much by way of downforce. and there is lift in all the wrong places. And before you get to it, the factory wing produces little if any downforce at any speed. There is just not enough clean air flowing over it to do so. Ive even relocated mine backward on the lid by 1.5" to attempt to increase any useable DF. Nothing worth while.

Anyway.. Ive been in talks with Kaminari Aerodynamics ( http://www.kaminari.com ) about producing a functional aero kit for our cars. They are quite interested as the owner as always liked SVX's and loves subaru's in general.

The plan is to create a custom front bumper with integrated splitter, custom side skirts, possible custom rear bumper and a functional rear wing along the lines of an STI wing.

They are going to have my car for a month to create the kit. Ill be getting 4 of the kits, however the molds will still be good for quite a few more to be produced.

I was wondering how many people would be interested in such a body kit? There are material options with the construction as well. Fiberglass, carbon fiber, Kevlar and urethane. Pricing has not been determined at this time for individual kits, but the more I say might be interested, the lower the price may be.

So, who's interested?

[Chuckls]

Neat. Would have to see the actual kit.

[mkud28]

Sounds cool, but I am with chuck on wanting to see. Any possibility on shaving weight by using the body kit? Obviously none of us want to add weight to the car.

[smc]

It will look allot like this:

As for weight, it wont weigh anymore than the stock trim on the SVX.

[mkud28]

I am gonna go ahead and say that is badass. I would love it if price isn't going to destroy me lol.

[LastSVXintheChi]

Im not a big fan of the little.support bars on the front but other than that it is "bad ass"

[smc]

Little support bars are there for a reason, not just looks. This is a actually their race car. Its being retooled WRC style for the SEMA show. They are creating tubular engine and suspension crossmembers and have a prodrive transmission to relocate the drivetrain back a few inches for better weight distribution. Its bad ass

Anywho, the bars are there to keep the front splitter from deflecting from the downforce thats being applied to it. They also allow for adjustment of the splitter itself.

Im a minimalist when it comes to body mods. Unless it increases performance, then I dont want it on my car.

[LastSVXintheChi]

I kind of figured I just like real smooth body kits

[Johnybeas]

Deffinately interested

[smc]

Cool. Again, once we get further down the road of development with the kit, I will be able to get a price for you guys.

[XT6Wagon]

Its fairly good, but its giving up alot of potential areo if its a direct copy of the STi.

I can't see under it, but I'm doubting they integrated a front diffuser. The viper ACR and Mustang Boss 302 both use it to good effect. From what I've read this is as big of a deal as having the front splitter. Venting the wheel wells and hood area is also critical and the STi seems to have no venting of either.

hitting up the rear wing, if you don't have rules or your rules allow it, moving it rearward increases effective downforce at no cost to drag.

More interestingly


If I had some resources I'd play with the wings of this era as most series were deep into aero regulation and F1 is starting into the deep end of stuff you can only do with huge budgets. Here they were still allowed to put a rather huge wing outside the wheelbase and look at just how low it is. This according to everything I could find should produce quite large amounts of downforce without a huge drag penalty. The wing has lots of leverage on the rear tires, keeps the airflow off the top of the body clean, and should extend the low pressure zone increasing the effectiveness of the rear diffuser.

oh and please, please don't follow the idiotic trend of people putting rear wings at roof level or higher. The air may be clean but its alot heavier for less effect. There is a reason that racecars in the 60's abandoned the high wing in very very short period of time


Lots of structure, no areo benifits from the wing/body interaction.

[BRADY]

Very interesting.

As one that often drives my SVX at over 140km/h (approx 88 mp/h) I could have sworn I feel the car generating downforce. It seems to kick in around that speed - the car hunkers down to the road and feels steady as a rock (even with my failing suspension).

Am I tripping? I agree there would be improvements possible to the aerodynamics, but it seems pretty amazing already. Subaru spent many millions developing this car - a car that featured its aerodynamics. Could they have got it THAT wrong?

[smc]

Moving a airfoil/wing back on the chassis will be affective if the rest of the bodies aero is set up for it. The reason for moving the wing full off the back of the body as seen in a few different classes of racing is to directly affect the flow of air from the undercarriage. Yes, it does indeed move the center of gravity created by the downforce to the back of the car, but you cant go slapping wings on all willy nilly on your car. You need a balanced push downward front and rear.
The "what looks to be a Lotus chassis" and the Chaparral have nothing to do what so ever with our cars. Those are mid-engined monsters that have a fair amount of front downforce built into the body already. The rear wing is there to balance it out at high speeds.

Every wing is developed for that particular car, for those particular regulations. An F1 wing would create more drag than a coefficient of down force if slapped on your SVX's. The factory wing on our cars is simply there for the looks. Its not in clean flowing air at all. Its airfoil shape is wrong as well. For it to work, it needs to be 8" above the deck lid where we get the clean moving air off the roof as it slopes downward.
There is no benefit of having it hanging off the ass end of the car as there is way too much body between the wing and the bottom skirt to get any additional beneficial downforce due to the vacuum created by the cars natural aerodynamics above the deck and rear.

The wing we will be creating will be engineered with a good coefficient of drag to downforce ratio that will balance out the SVX at higher speeds to match the addition of the front splitter with out sacrificing top speed.

The front splitter does indeed extend under the front engine x-member and is designed to smooth out the air under the car.

As for over heating:

My rally car had full undercarriage skids and never suffered from over heating.


Subaru did not get it wrong by any means! They designed a stellar car by most standards. It has wonderful aerodynamic properties which is why I want to create a race car with it. But it was not designed to corner like I want it to at 100+ mph. Due to its slippery shape, it created more lift than downforce in the wrong places. Most people wont notice it, but when I drive, I can feel it. I can feel the steering getting lighter. The chassis becoming unbalanced. At low speeds, I can tell that the rear would benefit from downforce as the suspension unloads under braking.

That and im going to redesign the suspension a bit. WAY too much anti-squat built into the lower a-arms. Great for comfort, not for chassis stability.

Like I said, this is being built as a race car, pure and simple. But, im creating parts that are going to look and perform well and id hate to simply keep to myself. On the plus side, it may drop the cost on my end if somebody wants to buy a kit along with me

[smc]

FYI: My old rally car so you know im not full of spit

[subbieatnz]

Sounds interesting... Will wait and see what it is like and costs.

I have a SVX I have stripped down that I had wanted to turn into track car too... Money and time ran out lol so never got any futher.