We all have heard about the term Aerodynamics so far, if not I have an article shared previously click here to get some basic idea about it. Coming back to today’s topic “Active Aerodynamics”. The term active itself coins the meaning that includes something which is active, something that moves or changes, which makes changes in Aerodynamics.
The technology is not new, but recently introduced in Automotive world. We have all been in an airplane at least once and preferred to sit on a window seat to gaze at the world from a height. But at that point if you notice the flaps on the airplane wings are constantly in motion, making symmetric movement to change the direction, altitude or speed of that aircraft. The concept behind this is to constantly change the lift, drag and force by moving the mechanical or physical components as per requirement.
Well this was the utilization of Active Aerodynamics in an airplane, question arises why do we use them in cars? They don’t fly. The answer lies in the limitation of power generated and weight of a hyper car. We have made as big engines as we could using all available technology to churn out the maximum power to weight ratio. We have used all the lightest material we could to reduce the weight of a hyper car. After reaching the limits of these factors, one thing that was still hinder the top speed achievement of a hyper car was air. How to cut the air in such a way that minimum drag is produced. Aerodynamics till date were designed only assuming the car achieving top speed in straight line. But practically that is not the case as we lap on race track, carving corners at high speed was the next big agenda. As we all know the car while turning faces different forces on different sides and also the wheel travels differs from outer wheel to inner wheel. This also means that the air in that region also reacts differently on each side of the car while negotiating a corner.
Hence a solution was pulled out by adding movable minimum parts in front spoiler (splitter) and rear spoiler (wing) computer operated at fraction of second programmed to move as per corner requirement to cut the air in such a way that it reduced drag in the most optimum way but also gives added benefits such as more stability, reduction in roll over, increased traction and as a result increased speed round the corner where the car feels more planted to the asphalt. Some deflect air to reduced drag, while others direct air to engine compartment for cooling, some focuses to throw air in intake, some of them focuses on cooling brakes and the possibilities are endless.
This how technology borrowed from aircraft helps us to increase the potential of already super-fast cars currently available on grid. Some of the largest automobile giants mentioned below have introduced these in their top notch supercars lineup.
- Lamborghini
- Ford
- Porsche
- Koenigsegg
- Zenvo
- Pagani
- Ferrari
mechanicalmindspit 
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