--- The Stude's 2013 Changes Page 20 --- --- Wing &Vertical Stabilizers -- Part I --- |
We decided to take advantage of the new rule in 2012 that allowed a rear wing on a Competition Coupe. It the past the car had the largest spoiler allowed to take advantage of the effect that the spill plates on the spoiler have on Center Of Pressure. The new rule besides allowing a wing that could contribute down force allowed vertical stabilizers for the wing. That would greatly enhance car safety in the form of better stability due to the effect on the Center Of Pressure accorded by the vertical stabilizer's much larger surface area vs. the spill plates on the old spoiler.
Since there hasn't been many wings on Comp Coupes we had to come up with some ideas for the stabilizers and the wing itself. I'll talk more about our choice for a wing further down the page. For now let's concentrate on the vertical stabilizers. We decided to copy some of the attributes of Chrysler's 'winged' NASCAR cars of the late 60's and early 70's. I found the picture of the Superbird and the Daytona above and use it along with a protractor to determine the stabilizer's forward and rear angles for both cars. We decided on the front angle on the Daytona and the rear angle on the Superbird for our front and rear angles. Not too scientific but we had to start somewhere.
Sorry about the picture above, but that is how I found the angles using a protractor.
Ruth and I were at Hooley's in March of 2013 when all of this took place. The plan was for me to make some wood mockups, above, and Hooley would get done what he could while we were in Florida for a few months working on our boat there and then I'd try to take what he had finished back to Utah to finish up and install that on the car when he came by on the way to Speed Week.
The bottom arrows above point to the part of the wood maze that are the leading and trailing edges of the stabilizer. The top points to a mock wing that at the time we hadn't decided exactly what it would be.
Hooley is working on the turbo install when this picture was taken.
Ruth and I left and Hooley took off on the turbo install and other items on the car. He began preparation for the wing by beefing up the area under the rear fenders since a wing has the potential for some serious down-force. We had hoped to start with very little down-force but wanted the strength in that area of the car if it was safely increased. He installed strong outer frame members and braced them back into the car, arrows.
Next the area from there up to the underside of the fender top was beefed up. He also at the same time built up the whole back of the car where the bumper would be.
A stronger pieced where the fender crown is was installed and heavy sheet steel stiffened up the new frame members even more.
The arrow points to the heave sheet steel and shows how it became integral to the new frame members.
The arrow points to the attach point for the stabilizer and it lays on the new framework below it.
Next Hooley began replacing the wooden pattern with 3/4 inch steel tubing. The tubing is welded at its base to a piece of strap that bolts to the top of the fender. Later there will also be side plates added to the skin down onto the fender sides to also stiffen the whole thing up.
Diagonals were then added to the framework also.
Next came the wing. We had been trying to find a wing that would be suitable for this application. I looked at wings used on other types of cars without much luck as I felt they would create much more down-force that what we wanted to start with. Then John who has flown model airplanes suggested a symmetrical wing that is pretty neutral and achieves lift or down-force through angle of attack instead of the shape of a more conventional wing. John had a friend that might be able to come up with a smaller helicopter blade for us to try, but then that fell through for this year. Then Hooley found a guy that works on hellicopter blades near him and the guy gave us the wing above. It is about 13 inches wide, wider than we really wanted but felt that if we tried to run it very neutral at first with just a touch of down-force it would be a starting place and we could always change in the future.
Of note is with all of the changes to the car with the longer wheelbase and larger turbo motor there would be a number of 'work up to speed' runs with the car which hopefully would allow us to fine tune not only the motor but the wing and the car's weight to keep the Center of Gravity ahead of the Center of Pressure.
The wing was wider than the car and tapered some over its length, but not too much. Hooley cut it to length and started on the job of securing it but still keeping it where the angle of attack could be adjusted.
The wing obviously would be mounted between the vertical stabilizers, but unlike the MoPar wings it wouldn't be at the tops of the stabilizers, but down a ways so that they would be like spill plates on each side.
Here you can see the symetrical shape better and the wood core with the one metal piece that ran the length of the wing. Hooley is starting one of the end pieces for the wing.
A large threaded piece was welded to the end of the metal piece and ...
.... the end caps were make that had mounting hole and also two more threaded rods.
The ends were epoxied to the wing ends and...
... a piece was added to the frame work on which the wing is mounted. The wing piviots on the larger threaded rod to the left and the other two are for adjustment and with the flat piece on this side clamp the wing in place. The top arrow points to another piece that will also help to adjust and hold the wing, but it isn't finished above.
Above the wing is mounted and in the position for the most down-force but we will not be starting with it in that position. Most likely it will be mounted with a degree or less of potential down-force. Again since I might get some license runs in the car and tuning has to take place for the new blown motor the speeds will be relatively low for the first runs.
Ruth and I returned to Hooley's in June on our way home and worked on the car for a few days. We covered the verticals with some cardboard to get a look at what it might end up looking like and ...
... then removed the verticals and the wing and put it in our trailer and took it home to Utah for the next step which hasn't happened yet as I write this.
NOTE: The pictures above are not quite the way they look as they are all taken 'wide angle' as you can't get very far from the car in the garage and the angles and sizes are somewhat distorted.
