Installed Front Wheel Fairings

[DRW]

Here's another pic showing the fairing as seen from the front. This shot isn't perfectly head-on, you can see the back/inner edge of the tire. I think it shows the shape better than the other pics.

The fairings haven't touched a curb, and I doubt they ever will since my car is lowered enough that a curb will scrape the lower fascia first. The tow hooks hang lower than that, making a definitive barrier to inattentive parking.

PS about the odd naming I'm using- I took a bunch of before and after pics while I worked. I didn't post any 'before' pics because it's easy to see what the car looks like without the fairings. So I'm posting the 'after' pics.

[DRW]

Another thought about mounting- Check out the bolt holding the front of the fairing in place. I didn't tighten it down, if I did it would've deformed and flattened the material. Instead I used a long bolt with a nylock nut tightened just snug. The same thing goes with the bolt on the backside. It's not like the bolts have to carry huge loads, it's just 1/2 ounce of plastic!

[brelandt]

Another idea..... instead of the triangle design (if it doesn't work) how about using 2 end pieces mounted back together at the same width as the tires?

Hard for me to explain but I'm sure you know what I'm thinking.

Got my black 5 gallon buckets yesterday. Still tossing the idea back and forth in my head to either make wheel well linings, air dam or grill blocking from behind the grill opening. chooses chooses......

[DRW]

It's been over a year since I put the front wheel fairings on my car. I liked them enough to keep them, but there was room for improvement. I had to take them off for some maintenance a few weeks ago, so when I put them back on I made some changes.

For starters, I moved them back closer to the wheel by about 1/2". I did this so they would fair the wheel better, and have less drag in crosswinds. I also added a flat coroplast flap that hangs down at the back edge. This piece mimics flaps I've seen on modern cars. I suspect this will help extend the effect of the fairing, and to provide a smoother transition where air flowing down through the wheel well meets the air coming in from the front of the car.

See attached pic. How's it look?

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

Neat install, have to look close to realise it's not original.

That flap raises some interesting thoughts. I wonder if one can balance the "ground effect" apparent airflow of the rotating tire (the boundary layer it should be carrying round with it) against the pressure of the airflow from in front, such that it "flies" right on top of the tire at highway speed without actually contacting it... though I guess one would then have to figure out how to stop it touching/rubbing during lane changes.

Preliminary thinking right now is that the surface speed of the tire and hence it's boundary layer, and speed of incident airflow are about equivalent... but the surface area on which the airflow due to forward motion will act, would be likely be greater than the area on which the tires boundary layer acts. Therefore the shape and hinge point of a flap should be modified to allow more surface area of the flap to come closer to the tire. And/or, the flap could be of airfoil cross section, such that with equal airflow each side of it, it will tend to lift towards it's cambered side... the side towards the front. Then I think when headed into the wind, the flap will not tend to be pressed towards the tire, because the faster moving airflow over the cambered side would make it lift more.... well actually it should kind of do that anyway without camber, but it would have to be at shallow angle to the airflow... or the airflow would have to be forced over it at a shallow angle...

[s2man]

Or, just let the flap rub against the tire until it wears off, "just right".

[JanGeo]

Be nice if the flap forced enough air down at the ground in front of the tire so that on a rainy day it blew the water away from the ground clearing a path for the tire to make clean contact.

[8307c4]

I like it because it doesn't devalue the car, that looks really good.
Because one day when you go to sell it I doubt you'll have to take it off.
Very nicely done.

[DRW]

Thanks, I like the looks, too. I guess I was lucky to find duct tape and Rubbermaid tubs that match the color of my car.
BTW the flap on my car is fairly rigid. I can't imagine it moving more than one inch with a strong, direct wind.