Link correction: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrQuB_tTZmc]M7 Wind Tunnel Testing - YouTube[/ame]
Great to see you using a wind tunnel & getting actual results. Rather than just saying my lap times dropped x amount yada yada yada.
Even in that case, something was working. Either the wing made the car more stable or they drove better, just knowing it was there. You don't like wings, Crash, because they don't have any "oil" you can change. :lol::lol: Jim
I think without real world testing it is more than likely the placebo effect that makes folks claim their aero widgets work. This real world wind tunnel testing is great. Oil fried wings, not that's pretty neat.
So dropping lap times aren't actual results? News to me. Check out the GP wind tunnel testing too. They dropped the wing lower then before on the previous generation, but that car had a rear diffuser. Not sure at this point which is the best set up (and the best setup actually will vary from track to track). Track times could help with that...
Just saying we went faster is not very convincing to me. Anyone can claim what they will. Sort of like those adds that claim a bunch of horse-power with purchase of their super chip. Caviot Emptor. Yep there is good stuff out there, but at times it is difficult to tell what is the real deal & what is a load of carp.
One way to check would be to put the wing on and make laps. Then take it OFF and see if lap times go down. I'd think just the familiarity and practice could account for faster lap times. Maybe even to a back to back to back test.
You have to adapt to the wing though. You can't do it in one lap. Maybe a professional driver could, but not us average mortals. What I found out with my wing on (not an M7 wing though): I can carry 5mph faster comfortably through the carousel at Road America than I could before, in fact the car actually sticks better once I get above 70mph than if it's below that; it's an adjustment to go faster to stick better. I can also carry a higher speed through turn one than I could before, but I'm still inconsistent enough there to know exactly how much (but oddly enough it seems to be very similar to the carousel). The wing does add drag, so it's a tradeoff, but the plusses outweigh the minuses. But when you make a single change, sometimes something becomes apparent. At Blackhawk, with it's slower top speeds, I don't really notice the wing all that much. It just isn't really doing much. And I'm just a hack. Get someone better than me behind the wheel, and those differences will become much more apparent. And these guys that measure significant improvement in lap times on long road tracks by tenths of seconds rather than seconds or half seconds can tell you straightaway how well a single change helps (or doesn't help).