Air intake at the nose of a vehicle's body instead of protruding above

[tallguy]

Since aerodynamics plays such a major role in land speed racing, it has always seemed to me
less than ideal for an air scoop to be jutting up -- into the wind -- from the roof of a car.  Would
it necessarily be impractical or impossible to have a small air inlet right at the nose of the body,
so air could then flow through ducting, back to the engine?  Has anyone built their car this way?

[John Burk]

For a correct streamlined nose there is an area of constant pressure proportional to speed . A fairly small area sees 100% pressure and a larger area sees 90% etc . Ideal is a body with a vertical leading edge and a tall relatively narrow air inlet . Free standing air scoops only work an one speed .

[John Burk]

 if you google "Bonneville - motorsportsinnovations.com" and scroll down to the 11th line of photos it shows an air inlet like I described .

[jacksoni]

I was involved with a Modified Sports car with just such an intake, as well as a couple of sedans with nose intakes, all through intercoolers. ( I think this year I proved, at least to myself, that my intercoolers worked. Forgot to turn on the coolant pump for them on return record run and it cost me 10mph). The MS car, with a long nose like some Comp Coupes, had 7 feet of hose from the nose to the intake manifold. The engine was a direct transplant from my firebird which went 164 with no intercooler and a stock wing, to 169 with a central grille intake and without the wing. I know, two changes so who knows but see above comment about intercoolers. In the MS I though it killed the engine. It never felt or pulled like it did in the firebird or later in another body and it only went 7 mph faster with a much more aero body. Best place for an intake is in a high pressure area (see base of windshield in Nascar cars) not in a high flow area. This can be in the nose but a lot is happening there. would take a lot of good testing, design, CFD, Wind tunnel you name it to find the ideal spot. And a scoop on the hood disrupts flow over the car. Maybe bad, maybe not. Same problem.

[tallguy]

if you google "Bonneville - motorsportsinnovations.com" and scroll down to the 11th line of photos it shows an air inlet like I described .

This shows the principle that I had in mind (and probably optimizes it beyond what I had imagined, actually).  Thanks for posting -- and good luck with the project.

[donpearsall]

I did the same thing with a NACA Inlet as the scoop on my partial streamline bike. The previous version had an air filter hanging out to the side attached to the turbo. That was not very aerodynamic. There are so many variables that I do not know if it was worth the effort or not. The engine seemed to run the same.
Don

[Handlebarlife]

I like your idea, that area having the most pressure build up, perhaps it will stabilize the machine more than a round nose. Overall I think engine placement within the designed vehicle determines the best intake placement. As most streamliners are very long and narrow with the engine behind the driver the air ducting needed to keep the volume and velocity of air correct would be too much real estate. A limiting factor of speed is the ICE engines needing the same air that were trying to punch through. I figure a front engine streamliner could utilize an intake in the nose, I imagine it like a dart. An extreme example of the open nose intake is the White Engineering electric motorcycle. Id like to see what that thing does to air at speed.