rear wing anjustment

[steve everard]

Aerodynamically speaking , what effect would we see when (assuming we keep wing angle same) moving wing from one hole to the other (circled in picture)? Appreciate any help. I’m not sure it makes any difference.

[David Ferguson]

Less angle-of-attack will reduce the downward force and drag. I don't see how you are going to keep the wing at the same angle if you lower the rear of it, that would be lowering the angle of attack.

[steve everard]

I was thinking that I could keep same angle of attack by adjusting forward pattern of holes.

[DaveW]

Aerodynamically speaking , what effect would we see when (assuming we keep wing angle same) moving wing from one hole to the other (circled in picture)? Appreciate any help. I’m not sure it makes any difference.

If you just move the wing downward w/o changing its attack angle, you will likely see a slight reduction in both downforce and drag due to its running in slightly more turbulent air. Whether that makes you faster or slower will depend on the type of track (fast v slow corners, length of straights, etc.) and many other variables such as tire characteristics.

[S Lathrop]

As the air flows over the car, the flow slopes downward as it gets to the rear. of the car. That downward slop increases the lower you go. But as DW pointed out, the turbulence increases and the wing looses some efficiency as you lower the leading edge which means you will have to increase the attack angle a bit to maintain the same level of down force. In short, until you try it you won't know what is actually going to happen and the changes may be too subtle to get a reading on. While the wing attack angle may lool low relative to the ground and the end fence, the attack angle of the wing is quite a bit different and you have to always think in terms of attack angle. Too high an attack angle ant the wing stalle quits making down force but continues to create drag. This explanation is probably as clear as mud.

Now having said what I did above about lowering the rear wing, I did lower the rear wing on a FA car many years ago. The effect was a very big reduction in drag with the corresponding increase in straight line speed.and we were able to balance the car just as well as before. The lap times were very satisfying.

[denyen96]

It is difficult to say exactly what will happen. If there are regulation holes and you can only work inside those holes, then it would be interesting to mock up all the potential positions in CAD to map the variations in setup.

Multi-element wings are extremely sensitive to slot gap and overlap. Having designed many setups myself, you could decrease the angle of attack, decrease the gap between the two and increase down-force and decrease drag... yes that is possible. It really depends on the specifics.

best,
Dan