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Old 02-05-07 | 01:26 AM
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Mr rx-7 tt's Avatar
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FD airflow

Interesting article.

http://autospeed.drive.com.au/cms/A_1080/article.html
Old 02-05-07 | 01:37 AM
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Another one...

http://autospeed.drive.com.au/cms/A_1110/article.html
Old 02-05-07 | 07:30 AM
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the first is an excellent aero article.

thanks for the link.

as someone who is proud to deliberately run the stock 93 nose w the R1 splitter and no rear spoiler i am delighted w the low drag numbers on my car and the job mazda did to get there.

perhaps mazda concluded on later models that they needed more air into the engine package (given the meltdown-prone OEM turbo package) but the aero guys at mazda that worked so hard at giving the car a small low drag frontal area must have been greatly disappointed.

perhaps the new nose came from the gold chain marketing crowd. whatever. it and 99% of the aftermarket abominations give an originally slick aero car the drag of a hummer.

i can tell you that w my setup i can run thru turn one at Brainerd at 170+ mph and the car is steady as if it were cruising at 70.

howard coleman
Old 02-05-07 | 08:08 AM
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Terrific -thanks!
Old 02-05-07 | 08:33 AM
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I would like to see wool tuft tests on different body kits. I think for the most part alot of them would fail hard. Anyone know what kind of rims that rx7 has? Been looking for some like those.
Old 02-05-07 | 08:37 AM
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Nice info
Old 02-05-07 | 08:47 AM
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That leads me to wonder what "aero" kits there are for the FD. Which ones have spent time in the wind tunnel.

And why the heck is that aussie making 400hp out of a t04 and a stock intercooler!?
Old 02-05-07 | 09:06 AM
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because he is running 21 pounds of boost!
Old 02-05-07 | 03:29 PM
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RE: the second article

a stock intercooler eh?
Old 02-05-07 | 03:44 PM
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There are only a handful of bodykits that are wind tunnel tested.

C-West
AutoExe
Mazdaspeed
Old 02-05-07 | 03:53 PM
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does anyone know what CWest kits have been tested, and what the results were? I'm pretty set on the N1 bumper, but am now in the air, pending the answer to this question.

thanks, good info

ryan
Old 02-05-07 | 04:04 PM
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considering wind tunnel expense i would be highly skeptical of any claimed tunnel time.

Aero Resistance is a combination of frontal area times drag coefficient.

do you see any "aero" (joke) kits on the market w less frontal area than the stock 93-93 FD?

hey, if they look good to you bolt them on but don't rationalise them on an engineering basis.

howard coleman
Old 02-05-07 | 04:06 PM
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http://www.c-westusa.com/labs/fudo1.asp
Old 02-05-07 | 04:36 PM
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the test was versus the 99 front end which is much much dragier than the 93-95.

btw, i don't dispute you'll get lots more downforce w most of the kits. downforce costs lots of drag however and i would rather not make that tradeoff.

i do stand corrected as to C-west. thnx for the link.

howard coleman
Old 02-05-07 | 05:06 PM
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Originally Posted by howard coleman
the first is an excellent aero article.

thanks for the link.

as someone who is proud to deliberately run the stock 93 nose w the R1 splitter and no rear spoiler i am delighted w the low drag numbers on my car and the job mazda did to get there.

.....whatever. it and 99% of the aftermarket abominations give an originally slick aero car the drag of a hummer....

howard coleman
This can't be overstated and I couldn't of said it better myself.
Old 02-05-07 | 05:30 PM
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The test was vs pre 99 spec. Look at the picture carefully - you'll see that the turn signal indicators are not 99 spec ones.

There is also an R1 lip.
Old 02-05-07 | 06:26 PM
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Too cool! I've always liked my base model's lines, and this just reinforces how GREAT that design was. Er, IS....lol!
A .29 coefficient of drag is phenomenal.

Thanks for the article!
Old 02-05-07 | 08:07 PM
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In the second article the guy is running a 21lb through a stock intercooler and expects to turn 10s.

LOL talk about doing it the hard way.
Old 02-06-07 | 01:42 AM
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Cool articles. I read all five installments.

I need to find/fabricate a spoiler for the top of my Mercedes wagon . . .

:-) neil
Old 02-06-07 | 10:05 AM
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whats with those red tail lights? is the 92 s6 different? the whole rear bumper seems to be different on that car.
Old 02-06-07 | 10:32 AM
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Yes, rear bumpers have a wider area to put the license plate on than the USDM FD's
Old 02-06-07 | 11:07 AM
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I believe those are rear "fog" lights
Old 02-06-07 | 11:41 AM
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Great articles! Thanks Chris!
Old 02-06-07 | 11:49 AM
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The '99 front is "dragier", but it's also "coolier" too, and I believe that was one of Mazda's stated reasons for the design. The openings (particularly the oil coolers) are MUCH bigger to aid in cooling. You'd make the 93/95 even slipperier by closing up the openings (the way they tape off the rad. grill on winston cup cars or use smaller brake ducts in F1), but not without cost.

The thing is too, "more drag" in a different front-end design, or even "more downforce" doesn't mean efficiency relative to slipperierness. You might be getting 5% more downforce for 20% more drag. A bad trade-off. At least with the '99 or the C-West, they've run it through a tunnel and (at least w/ Mazda R&D) probably didn't allow such a tradeoff to happen... they'd have refined it to better match the gain/loss.





Originally Posted by howard coleman
the test was versus the 99 front end which is much much dragier than the 93-95.

btw, i don't dispute you'll get lots more downforce w most of the kits. downforce costs lots of drag however and i would rather not make that tradeoff.

i do stand corrected as to C-west. thnx for the link.

howard coleman


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