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Technical George Poteet's Speed Demon wind Tunnel Test

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by 2club, Feb 7, 2016.

  1. 2club
    Joined: Feb 2, 2011
    Posts: 26

    2club
    Member
    from California

  2. Mr. Poteet is my hero.:)
     
    olcurmdgeon and i.rant like this.
  3. choptop40
    Joined: Dec 23, 2009
    Posts: 5,113

    choptop40
    Member

  4. Looking good...sure hope the salt recovers and we all can go back to racing next year....
     

  5. Thanks for the link, saw it on FB as well. I like some of the refinements.
     
  6. rooman
    Joined: Sep 20, 2006
    Posts: 4,045

    rooman
    Member

    One of the better aspects of this sort of car is that with the wheels being almost completely shrouded the fact that the tunnel does not have a moving ground plane has a little less effect on skewing the results. As noted in the article the fact that the testing is done at low air speeds also makes the results more of a guideline than absolute fact. A friend on mine built scale models for NASCAR team testing and they actually drew air in through the intake plenum and pushed it out the headers while the car ran on a moving ground plane tunnel with the wheels turning. The models cost more than a full size rolling chassis.
    When we ran funny cars in GM's tunnel we could not simulate the growth of the rear ties and the turbulence that they created under the back of the car and we also did not have two huge columns of hot exhaust gas from the headers affecting the air flow down the sides of the body. We did use smoke to see from how far out on the hood surface the air was drawn into the opening around the injector hat but for the flow on the rear deck and spoiler I usually wool tufted.
    I don't know how high the airspeed in the Darko tunnel in the video is and maybe that ran it faster without the guy in place with the smoke wand but we tested at 130 mph and the software extrapolated the numbers to come up with 300 mph downforce and drag references.

    Roo
     
    Tim_with_a_T likes this.
  7. oldsjoe
    Joined: May 2, 2011
    Posts: 2,604

    oldsjoe
    Member

    It's amazing how a very small alteration can effect the air flow around a vehicle at speed! Joe
     
  8. belair
    Joined: Jul 10, 2006
    Posts: 9,013

    belair
    Member

    Does the air flow change significantly at higher speed? The air looked to be 30-50? mph in the video, since the guy could stand up and move around. Will the lower speed air yield results that will be consistent at 300-400 mph?
     
  9. rooman
    Joined: Sep 20, 2006
    Posts: 4,045

    rooman
    Member

    Probably not so much with a slick shape like a streamliner but with bodies that have more pronounced transitions between surfaces the speed of the airflow over the body can make a difference. The higher end software used to extrapolate the results should have the capability of factoring that into the results.

    Roo
     
    belair likes this.
  10. Spent a week at George's place back in '12 and had some very interesting conversations with him every afternoon...

    He will be the first over 500 in a piston engined car. 1st gen SBC nonetheless!
     
  11. rd martin
    Joined: Nov 14, 2006
    Posts: 2,463

    rd martin
    Member
    from indiana

    sure is good to see the demon come back! now if we can get the salt back. the best of luck to you George.
     

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