Diffuser for rear of Griffith

Diffuser for rear of Griffith

Author
Discussion

Ricardo Bertone

Original Poster:

562 posts

217 months

Wednesday 22nd November 2006
quotequote all
Hi

I always thought the shape of the underside of the rear valance on a Griffith would lend itself to the fitment of a nice Carbon Fibre diffuser, similar to the Ferrari 430, etc.
Has anyone ever done this or would anyone be interested if I got one designed and manufactured?

Ricardo

markh

2,781 posts

282 months

Wednesday 22nd November 2006
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Quinny said:
What drugs are you takinghehe

Ruin the best arse end in the world with a halfords special bit of plastic????

I don't bloody think soyikes



I'm with Ricardo on this one, I think it would be a benefit, the one on the new Marcos looks fab, am working on one for my Chimaera

richb

52,745 posts

291 months

Wednesday 22nd November 2006
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It's been done on a Griff that races but I can't remember which one, I'm sure someone will post up a picture.

v8sag

746 posts

217 months

Wednesday 22nd November 2006
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Quinny said:
Ah but the arse end on a Chim probably needs a bit of helphehe
Wheras the Griff, well let the photos speak for themselves reallyyes

Does it really need somthing adding? I just don't see it.


You reckon
Everybody I know loves the rear end of the Chim over a Griff,if it was a bird i'd shag it.

markh

2,781 posts

282 months

Wednesday 22nd November 2006
quotequote all
Quinny said:
Ah but the arse end on a Chim probably needs a bit of helphehe
Wheras the Griff, well let the photos speak for themselves reallyyes



Does it really need somthing adding? I just don't see it.



those cavalier lights look sooo good

richb

52,745 posts

291 months

Wednesday 22nd November 2006
quotequote all
markh said:
Quinny said:
Ah but the arse end on a Chim probably needs a bit of helphehe
Does it really need somthing adding? I just don't see it.
those cavalier lights look sooo good
That's cos' the Cavalier was always more up-market than the Fiesta! hehe

markh

2,781 posts

282 months

Wednesday 22nd November 2006
quotequote all
richb said:
markh said:
Quinny said:
Ah but the arse end on a Chim probably needs a bit of helphehe
Does it really need somthing adding? I just don't see it.
those cavalier lights look sooo good
That's cos' the Cavalier was always more up-market than the Fiesta! hehe



I have niether....

markh

2,781 posts

282 months

Wednesday 22nd November 2006
quotequote all
Quinny said:
richb said:
That's cos' the Cavalier was always more up-market than the Fiesta! hehe
hehehehe Nice onethumbup

To be honest I never get to see the rear end of a Chim, see plent of front ends in the mirrorhehe



We have obviously never met on the road

Ricardo Bertone

Original Poster:

562 posts

217 months

Wednesday 22nd November 2006
quotequote all
Markh - who's working on your Chimaera diffuser? I was going to talk to Tim at ACT about designing and making one in Carbon Fibre.

Quinny - Don't worry - I think the Griffith rear looks fab too - I'm talking about something very discrete - it would span the full width and incorporate the twin tailpipes. Hopefully give some real downforce so would have to be physically attached to the chassis.

I would also like to design a better spoiler for under the nose as well - hey let's make a full smooth undertray in CF - anybody got access to a wind tunnel?

Ricardo

dnb

3,330 posts

249 months

Wednesday 22nd November 2006
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Thought about this... A motorsport engineering student I know offered to design it for me as a project. If it looks OK then why not?

GreenV8S

30,477 posts

291 months

Thursday 23rd November 2006
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No problem doing it for looks, but if you're doing it for aerodynamics you'd need to overcome a few issues to get it to work. The main ones are that for it to diffuse effectively you would need attached flow through the diffuser, which means providing a smooth air flow to the front of it, which means you need to smooth over the underneath of the car. That's doable but you'd probably need to allow some cooling for the sump, exhaust and transmission which means you'd be limited to two channels down the sides rather than a full width undertray. The next problem is to avoid obstructions within the diffuser itself. The exhaust is right in the way and you'd need to either run a central exhaust or put the diffuser completely under the exhaust (which limits the size of diffuser you can fit. Then you need to find a way to reduce the entrained air coming in past the sills, presumably you aren't willing to drop the ground clearance to almost nothing so you'd have to see how far you could get with spoilers along the sills. To get any really dramatic benefit you'd need to connect the back of the diffuser up to the low pressure area of a rear wing, but realistically that isn't going to happen. So if you're lucky and it works after all that, the benefits would be small until you get to three-figure speeds. If you're unlucky you could end up increasing lift and drag. A far safer bet is simply to fit a front air dam.

shpub

8,507 posts

279 months

Thursday 23rd November 2006
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Yep I'm with Pete on this one. I have played with rear diffusers and getting them to work is really difficult as Pete says. In the end I went with a splitter and front air dam and some other tricks and that reaped a lot of benefit. The downside is that ground clearance starts to become an issue as the better the seal, the bigger the benefit.

There is certainly a Chimaera that has had one fitted but it is more cosmetic than anything.

RichardD

3,608 posts

252 months

Thursday 23rd November 2006
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Aren't TVR Power working on aero mods for the Griff to go with the supercharging developments?

www.tvrpower.co.uk/sc.supercharger.php

v8sag

746 posts

217 months

Thursday 23rd November 2006
quotequote all
shpub said:
Yep I'm with Pete on this one. I have played with rear diffusers and getting them to work is really difficult as Pete says. In the end I went with a splitter and front air dam and some other tricks and that reaped a lot of benefit. The downside is that ground clearance starts to become an issue as the better the seal, the bigger the benefit.

There is certainly a Chimaera that has had one fitted but it is more cosmetic than anything.


Why hasn't a diffuser worked?I'm presumming this is on your racecar,have you a full undertray?

shpub

8,507 posts

279 months

Thursday 23rd November 2006
quotequote all
It was due to difficulties getting a flat undertray without introducing overheating problems and controlling air spilling out from the sills. I couldn't get the car low enough as well. Looked at my I spy book of aerodynamic aids and went the front splitter and air dam route instead. Current system has a splitter and underneath that is a rubber airdam that virtually touches the ground. The air dam stops any air from getting under the car. I removed the rear under spoiler so that there is as clear an exit route as possible but that is it. The splitter then has a big vent in it so that air that hits the front of the air dam but under the splitter is directed up and through the radiator and out over the top through another big vent in the bonnet. The normal front radiator intake is very small or even completely blocked off. This helps with maintaining the high pressure zone for the splitter.

Overall effect is to gain downforce from the splitter and to remove lift. It also helps get a very good air flow through the rad without flowing the air into the engine bay where it can struggle to escape.

It does work well as when I have broken bits of it, the effect is quite noticeable. The splitter is now made of ply as it is very cheap to replace. BTW the Le Mans racer also had its splitter made from ply.

Not against defusers but they are a lot of work to get working right and there are other ways of gaining aero advantages or creating a low pressure zone under the car.

markh

2,781 posts

282 months

Thursday 23rd November 2006
quotequote all
GreenV8S said:
If you're unlucky you could end up increasing lift and drag. A far safer bet is simply to fit a front air dam.


This is the bit that worried me, I saw a cerbera a few years ago (christof)that had an interesting splitters front and rear which I assumed worked properly (did I hear the body kit was £5k>? so I hope it worked for that money!).

I know it wold look wrong on the Chimaera but dose the rear splitter on a Tamora do any good? or just cosmetic

Edited by markh on Thursday 23 November 09:57


Edited by markh on Thursday 23 November 09:58

shpub

8,507 posts

279 months

Thursday 23rd November 2006
quotequote all
markh said:
I know it wold look wrong on the Chimaera but dose the rear splitter on a Tamora do any good? or just cosmetic

Errr I doubt it. Not enough expansion and channelling of air flow under the car. Looks nice though.

Ricardo Bertone

Original Poster:

562 posts

217 months

Thursday 23rd November 2006
quotequote all
I have a few friends who are aeronautical engineers - I'll run it past them and come up with a design if possible.

Ricardo

Edited by Ricardo Bertone on Thursday 23 November 21:38

Graham

16,369 posts

291 months

Thursday 23rd November 2006
quotequote all
richb said:
It's been done on a Griff that races but I can't remember which one, I'm sure someone will post up a picture.


Marc Hockins car ( the one that came second hehe) has a rear diffuser, marc reckons it makes a noticable difference.

There'll be a pic on the tuscan challenge forums somewhere

G

GreenV8S

30,477 posts

291 months

Thursday 23rd November 2006
quotequote all
shpub said:
air that hits the front of the air dam but under the splitter is directed up and through the radiator and out over the top through another big vent in the bonnet.


The splitter is well worth having of course, and a pretty safe bet because it will always work if you make it big enough. I suspect you're getting massive gains from the big bonnet vent you have and these probably outweigh the other features by a large margin. That area of the bonnet is one of the lowest pressure areas on the car, and connecting it to the underbonnet area means you reduce the suction above the bonnet, reduce the pressure below it, and this will carry back to a smaller degree over the whole floorpan. You only need a small pressure difference over a big area like that to do something useful. Even with that sort of thing you will be lucky if you manage to overcome the lift let alone produce net downforce, and you will need to be well into three figure speeds before the benefit is enough to matter. And if you do start to get significant forces you need to worry about the balance as well as the amount, many of the bigger easier wins that produce downforce at the front can result in increased lift at the rear. For a road car I think the performance benefits of aero mods like this are negligeable and the only reason to do it is for the looks.