Bump for brain storming

Okay, I looked under the car this morning.
-I have ~7.75" of clearance from the pinch weld to the ground.
-I have ~8.75" of clearance from the frame to the ground.
-I have 9" from the gas tank to the ground
-I have 7.5" from the rear end housing to the ground (of course this will probably change with the IRS; we'll see).

With those measurements, I think the under-body panel will be level with the pinch welds. I might make it a little lower than the pinch welds to help fit the exhaust between the body and the panels. Like I've said before, the entire exhaust will be wrapped. To accommodate the rear end housing, I'll probably steal a small design feature from the Enzo:



The center piece in the diffuser. I'm thinking about somehow incorporating a differential oil cooler into it (the side scoops would be involved), but I need to do a little research on that. If I do steal part of the Enzo's panel design, it won't be the same shape; it will be a little wider up front, but not much (to make room for more diffusers).

For the exhaust, I kind of pity whoever I have do the work. First, everything's going to have to be pretty tight up against the under-body, and second, I'm going to have whoever does it weld everything, but section it off (with flanges... OEM style) so I can remove the exhaust sections as necessary (mostly for heat-wrapping purposes). I think there will be a hole in the under-body panel just before the rear suspension to allow the exhaust to drop down to clear the rear suspension (mustangs with IRS have to run the exhaust below the rear suspension). I'll probably incorporate something with the rear diffuser to keep the exhaust from interfering too much with air-flow under the car.


Any input? Or am I the only one here who's extensively researched aerodynamics?

 

Damn you really are the aerodynamic man lol. Any idea on how much this is going to cost?

 

Honestly, not yet; I still need to price out the materials. Like I said earlier, I'm going to be paying for the raw materials and that's about it; my friend Ryan is currently at wyotech taking a class were he's going to learn welding and metal fabrication. I've discussed with him what I want to do and he said he's game to do the actual fabricating; I just have to come up with the game plan. Still, I know the materials will get expensive. I'm looking at 1" square tubing for most of the frame rail reinforcement, and I'm thinking between 1/4" and 1/8" sheeting for the under-body panels, front splitter, and rear diffuser. Everything will be painted and/or undercoated, too.

And with a drag coefficient of 0.37 (lower is more aerodynamic, and most modern cars fall between 0.30 and 0.35), the mustang needs all the help it can get. Not to mention true aero modifications just plain look bada**

*edit: two more things.

1) I just realized how clean the underside of my car's going to look when it's completely flat-bottomed; the only thing that will be below the panels will be the exhaust tubes from the rear suspension back

2) I think once it's done, I'm going to go to a shop and request an oil change, then hang around and watch the chaos ensue

 

Jackass. LOL. are you sure that the aerodynamic will be worth the weight? unless you are using like aluminum that **** is going to be heavy as a mf.

 

whoops, left that out when I went back and re-worded my post lol.... yeah, the square tubing and sheeting are all going to be aluminum. I initially wanted to do it out of 1/4" ABS plastic, but I decided against the plastic since I didn't see it lasting too long between the heat and the goal of the belly pan being 3" off the ground lol

As far as the weight, I'm not concerned with a little extra weight (what's 100lbs on a 600rwhp car?); what I am concerned with is weight distribution. The car already has about a 55/45 weight distribution, and I'd like to keep it at that or get closer to 50/50. Removing 60-something pounds from the front and adding 65-70 to the rear should help a bit, and the belly pan will cover the entire car, so it shouldn't affect the weight distribution too much.

 

Bump for more brainstorming (Ej6, you might appreciate this one).

I've been thinking (again, aerodynamics) about the side scoops. I've been reading about how Kenny Brown Performance modified the side scoops on their New Edge racer so the scoops were ducted through the trunk and out the rear bumper; at high speeds, it helps to stabilize the car. Now, obviously, it wouldn't be too functional at lower speeds, but really, how functional would it be to use them to cool the rear brakes? However, I'm also thinking it would decrease drag (however slightly) since the air that would normally get caught up at the side scoops would have a clear path to the rear of the vehicle. Any thoughts on this?

For what it's worth, here's what the rear bumper would look like (look below the tails):

 

You have my attention.

As for that, I wouldn't worry too much about it right now. But if you serious about tracking the car, it would help. But first, since your car is nose heavy, I would relocate the battery to the rear and make front brake ducts first of all. Then worry about the rear (giggle).

As far as underbody paneling, I think it's a great idea. Especially with a front and rear diffuser and spoiler, you will love highway driving (trust me). You could make the front underbody panel out of aluminum sheeting to shield the future turbo and downpipe heat displacement, then create a series of paneling via a framing system out of abs sheeting.

If you lived closer, I could cut you out some titanium sheeting with the waterjet.

 

mmmm.... titanium

But yes, the battery will be relocated to the trunk; I either have to run a smaller battery (one of those slim ones) or relocate it to fit the twin turbos in the engine bay (the driver-side snail sits right where the battery is), so I'm choosing the relocation, mostly in the name of weight distribution. I don't know how much of the thread you've read, but I'm switching to a tubular k-member, tubular a-arms, and coilover conversion in the front, which will save somewhere around 60-70lbs in the front, and swapping to independent rear suspension, which weighs around 80lbs more than the stock SRA, so that should help balance the chassis out a little bit, as well as aid in handling.

But I'm extremely excited to see how much of a difference make on a street car; to be honest, this car isn't going to be a DD (surprise surprise), but probably more of a weekend highway queen (I'll be playing with corvettes ). Also, (I'm sure you're with me on this) I hate fake scoops, so if it's a scoop and on my car, I'd like at least a little functionality out of it. The air dam on my front bumper will obviously feed the FMIC, and the fog light holes (which are 2-part on the 99/01 cobra bumpers) will direct air to the radiator and front brakes. Also, I'm stealing a slight design element from the catfish camaros and implementing it into the splitter; I'm going to have a section in front of the radiator that curves up to direct air to it, since the FMIC will be blocking most of the nose-feed air flow.

*edit: I do like the idea of mixed aluminum and ABS for the belly pan though. I'm thinking maybe do aluminum for the splitter and wherever the exhaust will be (probably right underneath the driveshaft tunnel) and ABS sheeting everywhere else (including the diffuser); it'll save some weight, as well as a little money.

 

Yeah, I'm going to have to read through most of the thread later, I've been busy with school and work and car searching for a while now. I like designing this type of stuff, go figure....

 

Join the club

If you find anything that needs thought out more, redesigned, or have any ideas, let me know. I'm really wishing I had Auto-CAD on my laptop. I might look up how much it costs... once I get myself situated I might buy it and make some drafts... it'll help visualize everything I want to do, too

Also, beware... a lot of the thread is comprised of useless posts and/or me rambling on lol