Latest installment of Sporqster's crazy impractical ideas

DIY Turbos. Great for making mad power and wrecking pretty much every thing in the power train south of the throttle body. Probably not the best thing to put on an endurance race car, but like a irrational compulsion, I just want to - even though I'm almost positive I'll regret it. Particularly when the parts are to be sourced at the local bone yard. But they make such a cool noise, and mufflers just seem to be a waste of good exhaust energy. Surely I could do something useful with a turbo besides blow up motors. Then an idea strikes me: Powered ground effects. For this to work, the plate has to be REALLY close to the ground, like 0.5-.25". I'm thinking literally chained or otherwise fastened to the knuckles of the car such that the plate moves with the wheels, not the body of the car. Yes, any rocks, roadkill, or other obstructions straddled by the car will get nailed by this under car vacuum cleaner attachment. For track use only. And make it out of nylon or something that can take a licking and pop back into shape.

Would it actually generate any down force? If a common turbo is capable of suppling 15lbs of boost to a 203cuin motor at 6000RPM that's bout twice the density of the atmosphere at a rate of 6000min/2 (intake stroke every other revolution) = 3000 intake strokes per min, X 203 cu in = 609000 cu in / min, or / 60 = 10150 cu in /sec or, /12/12/12 = 5.87 cu ft /sec, and the density of air at 30psia is about .152lb/cuft (thanks: http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/air-temperature-pressure-density-d_771.html) I've got me a mass flow rate of 0.889lb/sec. Set that boundary condition at the top of a funnel shaped bit, crudely model the bottom of the car, set a 70mph 14.7psia wind shooting one direction under the thing, throw this all into my handy-dandy CFD package AND......

waiting....

Good lord this is taking forever...

BAM!

Meh. Maybe if the geometry were tweaked it would do better. Or a redonkulously bigger turbo... but as a biproduct I've got some high pressure air to blow on my brakes or something, maybe spool up another turbo to suck even more air.

The idea is sound.... finding a big enough turbo that would give the pull you need is another problem.

As well as then trying to figure out how to spool this thing:

Let alone trying to mount it.

You have everything correct. Now, just give me the turbo when you blow everything else up.

If you'd like, i can make a trip down there with the MX6 and give you a lesson on why turbos ARE AWESOME THE WAY THEY'RE MEANT TO BE USED.

I want a ride in the MX6!!

Well I think you've combined at least 3 technologies that were banned from F1 here, and for good reason:

1. Underbody aero super-close to the ground - generates big downforce that goes through big fluctuations with minor changes in ride height. Touch a curb in a corner and you lose a huge chunk of the downforce you had.

2. Sucker cars - greatly increases the advantages and dangers of #1

3. Underbody downforce dependent on engine load - adds another factor that can cause fluctuations in underbody downforce...fluctuations which get bigger as ride height decreases.

That said if you're only making less than 300lbs of downforce it should be safe, but then there's the issue of filtering intake air (the filter will get clogged with tons of debris if it's any good, if you're running a BOV maybe switch to a CBV so the filter will be reverse-flushed on overrun?), intake air temp (this air will be HOT, all air coming into the turbo will be forced through a small gap between the underbody plate and the hot, hot road) and intake air pressure (it will be lower under there).

So just to recap this will feed your engine with hot, low-pressure, debris-ridden air and generate as much downforce as a sensible and conservative (by racing standards) aero kit, except only when you're driving on very smooth ground.

Why use a turbo, when you can use a blower fan?

...specifically, an Army surplus cooling blower from an Abrams tank...FROM A FRIGGIN TANK!!!!

Cheaparral Champion Corvette $2007 winnar

Oh, and by the way, your idea really sucks.

dculberson wrote: I want a ride in the MX6!!

Come on out in Spring and give me a hand taking it to the proverbial next level and i'll give you a ride in it @ 30psi.

I kinda want to take it to Wilmington for some land speed racing, but it's gonna need a bunch of safety equipment, so that probably won't happen.

Hey I totally get how you like to put geekytastic gadgets on your car, so how about variable aero instead? That was only banned from F1 because it was way too awesome!*

*and also a bit dangerous...but mostly awesome.

Flat-bottom aero and a diffuser is basically free downforce, from there you can add a movable wing in the back and maybe some movable dive planes in the front. Big rally-style ones.

Swank Force One wrote: As well as then trying to figure out how to spool this thing: Let alone trying to mount it.

I may have to put another engine in the passenger seat.

I love the idea, but your source of sucking sucks for this application. Turbos are great at supplying a small volume of air at high pressure (in general), and you want large volume of air at relatively low pressure. And of course all the problems that GameboyRMH mentioned although the cheaparral guys really did it right and eliminated those three issues.

All that being said, try it out if you want to and post some videos of your awesomeness.