Fellow Racers, Designers and Aerodynamicists,
I've seen odd looking snorkels (is there a better term?) sticking out the
front of a variety of land speed cars. There are several excellent examples
of them in the latest issue of Bonneville Racing News, sticking out the
front of roadsters grills. Chuck Salmen's beautiful Sum Fun roadster was
the one that really caught my eye, since it's seems to protrude the
furthest. I'd imagine that this is to take advantage of less turbulent air
ahead of the grill, right?
My car, being about as aero as a brick may also benefit from something
like this now that I'm relocating my engines intake from the cowl to the
front end of the car. I was surprised to see a 6 MPH change in speed at
Maxton's HOT June meet when the top of my fresh air box came off during two
runs. (duct tape quickly cured that!) I'm not sure if it was the cooler air
from outside the engine compartment that the engine liked or the slight ram
air effect from the cowl fed system, but whatever it was it worked. Now I
want to optimize the air intake system and was wondering if anyone had done
any experimenting with forward facing snorkels of varying lengths?
Chuck Rothfuss
Lots of ideas, no time and less money!
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