Does the wing work on the exige??

[carl]

Has any body run there car without the rear wing on the track? Does it really add down force or is it the body shape of the exige that gives the down force? I know that my cornering speeds are no faster in the exige then they were in my elise. Were going to be running 2 days this week @ BW with and with out the wing. It may just be causing drag and not really aid high speed cornering. I think I'll ask Craig Stantion to test my car both ways to see what he thinks. If it gives less drag with it off and adds straightaway speed and doesn't hurt the stability I'll give it a shot. These cars run out of steam above a 100 anyways because of drag..Besides I'm a little old for the boy racer look..carl

[TorsinADoc]

Dont they make a production model called the Elise?

[Thomasio]

The magazines have claimed a slight difference... for what it's worth.

Thomas

[Bleu Omdurman]

I'd imagine that the added drag is negligable. Given that there is nearly no rake to the wing and very little frontal area. I am confident it adds downforce but not sure how much. So a guess the question is how many pounds does it need to add to offset the top end loss due to drag. I would think that question would vary from track to track, right?

The top end differences are slight either way. like 1 or 2 mph. The issue isn't so much the poor top end but how fast the corner exit is. Given that, I'd give a couple of pounds of down force on the key corner before the straight the benefit of my doubt.

I look forward to your findings though. Good luck. will you by chance be using a good datalogger?

[carl]

no data logger. carl

[Serebo1]

Lotus engineers spent a lot of time in the wind tunnel making certain that the aero surfaces of the Exige were all functional, and working together. That why the subtle differences in the clams (from the Elise.)

Obviously, the wing and splitter setup isn't adjustable like on an F1 car, so the efficacy is going to be determined by the type of track you're running - high DF vs. low, or wherever in between. Just look at the difference in wing on the F1 cars in Monoco vs. Canada (or upcoming Indy for that matter)

[KingOfJericho]

Well I don't know anything technical about it but I know that if I pop the lid on the highway the trunk stays tightly closed. It's definitely pushing down but it's not the most sturdy structure in the world... it wobbles all over the place on the highway.

[AnsisK]

I do believe some people noticed the back half of their wings with more grime and dirt than the front half, meaning the wing is just catching "clean" air on the top surface of the wing, and not dragging through it.

[CCR Elise]

Any downforce it creates is of value. I agree with the statement previously posted about corner exit speed. Being able to get on the gas faster and feeling the rear planted is a good thing. Just my two cents.

[xtn]

Originally Posted by AnsisK

I do believe some people noticed the back half of their wings with more grime and dirt than the front half, meaning the wing is just catching "clean" air on the top surface of the wing, and not dragging through it.

That doesn't make any sense to me.

[KingOfJericho]

Originally Posted by xtn

That doesn't make any sense to me.

ditto. I have bugs splattered all over my car, I don't think that has anything to do with aerodynamics. Even an enzo gets covered from tip to tail with little critters...

[codymac]

So... "dirty air," that's the stuff that has the bugs and grime in it?


To answer the original question, yes, it works - according to the Lotus engineers.

Of course, if we base everything we know about cars on what a bunch of boffins say, then I'd say Mitsubishi engineers are twice as smart - after all, the Evo rear wing produces twice as much downforce.

[xtn]

See my avitar. Please note the rear wing in the "extra downforce" position as specified in the owners manual.

[XPcarguy]

Originally Posted by 4carl

I know that my cornering speeds are no faster in the exige then they were in my elise.

Both cars were probably underdriven. Seriously, though, the vast majority of us "track nuts" are either driving below the limits or hitting artificial limits by lowering the limits of the car through driver error.

That said, the purpose of a rear wing is so you can set up the car to oversteer on the slow corners (where aero DF will be nill) and still be stable (neutral to mild understeer) in fast corners (where aero DF will be significant). That is the ideal setup for a race car and it's pretty hard to get a chassis to do that without an aero package. Perhaps you could tweak your suspension toward more oversteer to take advantage of the wing. (go softer in the front and/or stiffer in the rear to reduce understeer)

[fishguy]

Carl,
you might want to consider removing the front splitter in conjuction with the rear wing removal. They should be working together giving downforce on both ends of the car(if they actually work on the Exige).
If they do work, you will be light on the rear of the car(w/o wing, and with splitter), and heavy up front, making the ass end of the car loose, not from mechanical grip, but from aero grip.
this would be a bad thing to play with at speed, and could cost you a car or worse.
Did you see what happened to castro nieves(sp) a few weeks ago when his wing just blew off?
I know thats a bit of an extreme example, as they use a great deal of downforce in the design of those cars, but you might want to consider keeping the car balance with splitter/wing both either on or both off.
Good luck
Fishguy

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by xtn

See my avitar. Please note the rear wing in the "extra downforce" position as specified in the owners manual.

That makes your car look more like an F15 with it's speedbrake extended...

[codymac]

Originally Posted by XPcarguy

Both cars were probably underdriven. Seriously, though, the vast majority of us "track nuts" are either driving below the limits or hitting artificial limits by lowering the limits of the car through driver error.

It's certainly not driver error in my case...
more like "lack of driver talent."

[ZJChaser]

I don't remember where but I remember reading that at 100mph the splitter and wing together generate ~100 pounds of downforce. 60 pounds by the rear wing and 40 pounds by the splitter. No idea if that is true or not. I do know that when running on the Cal Speedway Roval I was not able to reach the same speeds as mlk-f1 in his elise.

[AnsisK]

Originally Posted by xtn

That doesn't make any sense to me.

I'm no aerodynamics expert, but this is what I came up with as an example:



The first one is the airflow underneath the wing, which is catching the clean, undisturbed air, causing drag (although I'd imagine it can still effectivel provide downforce between the pressures over and under the wing).

The second one has the airflow passing directly over the wing, pressing down on the car. The clean air would be hitting the wing's top surface, this is why some members saw the back half of the top of the wing more grimey than the front, which is catching dirty air coming over and off the top of the car.

The third is pretty much the opposite of the first.

I'm presuming Lotus was going after the second style.

[Westrock]

I have thought about taking mine off just for the clean fastback shape. But I'm afraid of tempting fate. But again, up to and under 100MPH are really going to feel anything. Has anyone gone from an Elise to the Exige and thought "what a difference"?

As far as keeping the front splitter on, I don't think it would make a huge difference as far as the back end being unbalanced. Were talking about a car with like 36/64....all the weights in the back to begin with...if anything I'd keep the front splitter on.