Here's a photo from our wind tunnel test on friday, and an explanation of proper aero balance in response to another 6speed thread (on 997's).

You're spot on about the balance. There is a second order effect of corner entry (which could be interpreted as "the track") which I'll address at the end of this.

Here's an iP4 pic from the Friday's wind tunnel day. The F430 is doing 175mph

There are two key points to the aero. The first is magnitude. The F430 has three downforce settings, which are driven by the front splitter. The maximum downforce is great for a pro driver, but can be hard to drive for the rest of us.

Consider this. IF the car has 0 downforce through the entire speed range, you can corner with pretty much the same grip at any speed. It's very easy to find the limit, and stay on it.

Now, take a high-downforce car. The grip will drop exponentially as a function if speed. Your grip at turn-in is the max grip you'll see in the corner. Staying on the edge of a reducing G circle is hard. The difficulty increases with the slope of the reducing g's. Ie, your grip drops faster with high downforce cars. Most non-pro's do best with mid-level downforce.

The next thing is balance. Again, the top pro's want 50 / 50 front to rear downforce balance. The mid level pro's are faster with a front downforce bias. Most of the track enthusiasts are the same.

In the end, the question of aero setup is really based on the driver, not the track. For a given ride height, we can prescribe a level of downforce and get the computer to maintain a bias across a large speed range. The aero is the same on every track (taking altitude out which applies to everyone except the Colorado guys). What does change, is corner entry, suspension loading, etc. Taking that into account, however, requires having a top NASCAR / F1 team in your paddock. . . or you could spend $500k in wind tunnel testing, and we'd program it all into your wing computer

Cheers,
Greg

 

Very cool, interesting to see. Most companies don't spend the time and actually go as far as this for product development.

 

I agree, it looks very cool. I didnt see is that up for sale?

 

We're at the Cavallino Classic in Palm beach finishing the track testing. The customer is very happy with the package, and couldn't believe how much more speed he was carrying in the turns. If you're at the track, you can see the #54 car at Classic Coach.

Prices will be going up in the next week or so. You can PM me if you're interested, and I'll get back to you as soon as we finalize the package.

We just got a look at the new 458 Challenge car. I can't wait to start development on that platform.

Greg

 

Check out the new Sauber wing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edEx4nXdIlY

 

Any updates? Price ect?

 

Sorry for the delay. We've been filling pre-orders from customers that have my cell phone number

There are three GT packages that include the entire kit, or you can order each piece separately. If you get the entire kit (wing, GT bumper, splitter), you can take advantage of the balance points determined from the wind tunnel testing. A laser cut drill fixture is used to ensure your wing is mounted and aligned in accordance with the one we tested in the wind tunnel.

The GT packages are completely plug and play. Each has a default setting that works great on the track. However, there are a lot of options if you want to dive into them. For example, each kit has three levels of downforce: small, medium, large. The downforce level is driven by the front splitter extension, and corresponds to a wing angle (for balance with a static wing) or a wing program (for balance with the active wings). This allows you to try different downforce levels without causing instability, or having to guess at the correct settings. The instructions describe how to choose the correct downforce level based on your driving abilities. I'm also available to help you sort that out.

If you go active, you can also specify the front / rear downforce bias. There is a default if you're unsure.

Pricing for the complete packages are:

• Static GT Package - $15,000
• F1 GT Package (single piece moving blade) - $22,000
• F2 GT Package (split moving blade) - $25,000

You can add the active front aero for $6.5k in parts cost (we're still working out installation costs).

The wings only prices are:

• Static GT $7,500
• F1 Dynamic Wing (single piece moving blade) - $14,500
• F2 Dynamic Wing (split moving blade) - $17,500

Here are pics of the static wing we dropped off today. I'll post the pics of the F2 on a black 430c when the install is complete.