Has anyone ever done any wind tunnel tests..

[regularman]

on a midget? I just been reading through some info and doing some calcultions and was wondering if there are an aero sources for the midget. I would think for the racing there would have been some tests done. Just all kinds of things going through my head. I got to try and get the parts midget today and then I got to get some other stuff from work and do a few more things on the 71 and then out of town on wed, thur, fri evenings and then hopefully (fingers crossed) next Monday I register it. Its been so long and I am trying to control myself, I have to wait until everything is right, but I am on fire with the want to drive that car. Whew. Going to see if all my drive line calculations and all for the 71 work out the way I figured them. The A series is max torque at 3000 rpms and I am geared for 70mph at 3025. Got to take deep breaths. My basement is all cleaned up and I am ready to move forward. Just patience for 1 more week.

 

[drooartz]

Imagine a brick. I think that pretty much sums it up.

 

[regularman]

Imagine a brick. I think that pretty much sums it up.

But a small brick :wink:

 

[JPSmit]

Imagine a brick. I think that pretty much sums it up.

But a small brick :wink:

a small shiny gold brick :laugh:

 

[tony barnhill]

Remember way back when, the factory added length to the nose & redid the front of the fenders & the grill area to add speed.

 

[mccalebr]

Thank goodness, back then most things designed in the wind tunnel had wings, otherwise I'm afraid that our classics would look very much like todays crop of jelly beans.

Long live the designers...if there are any left!

My .02,

Ray

 

[blkcorvair]

They tried this once in England, but everytime they turned the fan on the Lucas switch burned out....

 

[regularman]

Thank goodness, back then most things designed in the wind tunnel had wings, otherwise I'm afraid that our classics would look very much like todays crop of jelly beans.

Long live the designers...if there are any left!

My .02,

Ray

Yeah, I remember back when corvettes had style. Then along came the 280Z datsun and it had the shape that about every sports car since then has had. I like style and it takes a real designer to get style and aero to work. I been looking at all the different designed spridget noses as well. I am on an aero kick right now, don't know why.

 

[regularman]

They tried this once in England, but everytime they turned the fan on the Lucas switch burned out....

:lol:

 

[jlaird]

More HP = faster. That's all you need to know. At some point 1500 lbs starts to go wheels up.

Factory teams took off the windsheld and made the bonnet longer with a hole to let air out.

 

[regularman]

Back in 2005 I went to Daytona USA and we were not allowed to go into the stands because the SCCA had the track rented for the day and there insurance would not allow people in the stands. We payed for the trip around the inside on this little tram thing and I got a good look at some of the cars and there were about 20 spridgets there and one was flying around the track. I would guess that aero would be important at those kind of speeds and also I wonder what gear they must be running to go that fast. Surely no the stock 4.22 or 3.90.

 

[drooartz]

The Healeys'/MG made a bunch of areo changes for the Spridgets at Le Mans, where high top speed is critical. The longer, lower, smooth nose was a big part of this. They also had a nice coupe body. A stock Bugeye or Spridget has a large frontal area, not designed for aero smoothness.

Me, I like the original non-aero looks...

Race Spridgets may very well be running a 4.22, or even a 4.55. Racers ring the A-series' neck, running very high RPM to get big speed.

 

[racingenglishcars]

I have a book from my study time (mechanical engineering) which gives a Cw for the Bugeye as 0.31
Based on that and a torque curve for the 1100, I made this graph
https://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x288/frogeye61/Links/HPSPD.jpg

 

[aeronca65t]

One time, as sort of a joke, I made two "slant-nose" fenders for my racer. I made them from old, crash-damaged, beat up fenders laying around. I still have them and have thought about putting them on my (planned) Midget Rat-Rod, with headlights in the grill.

Here's a LeMans Sprite

 

[texas_bugeye]

looks sort of like a mini DB9!
I LIKE IT!!

 

[regularman]

I found this site with some interesting noses. I like the speedwell bonnet best. noses

 

[aeronca65t]

Yeah, the Sebring Sprites are real pretty.

Two years ago, I ran in a vintage race at Summit Point and one of the other cars I kept up with was a real Sebring Sprite.
It used to belong to Graham Hill.
The present owner has a 1275 in it.
It's the white #409 in ~THIS~ video (from my in-car camera).

 

[jlaird]

Sigh.

 

[bugimike]

Nial, I love your "slant nose"!!! It is amazing how much more like an MGB it looks after you do that to the Spridget! A nice pair of flame-throwers in the grill would certainly do the trick to make it a streetable car!!

 

[Hap Waldrop]

About the fastest Spridgets in the country are the guys running SCCA nationals, if you saw a Burgundy car with a funny looking cage that day at Daytona, you saw Harold Flescher, he one of the fastest Spridget guys in the country. I'd say a goos top national SCCA spridget is good for about 130 on the back straight of Daytona, and they are doing 8000-9000 rpms to get there with the 3.7 rear. I'm not a big fan of the fiberglass 1500 nose some racers use, but At Dayton one of those is worth an couple of MPH. I don't think anyoner has ever taken a Spridget to the wind tunnel test becuase of the price to do so, if Huffaker can't afford it, the rest of us are screwed