Rear Wing Design

[rmcmullin]

I?m adding a wing to my rear engined modified roadster.  Is there anybody in the business who produces an off the shelf product that would be better than just making a guess?

[manta22]

You could build one yourself. I'd recommend a NACA4412 profile. A long time ago I built one of aluminum for a friend's FE AA fuel dragster. I think I still have it around here somewhere.

[RichFox]

Get ahold of Bob Dalton at D&A Engineering in San Martin, Ca. Or look up Flashpoint on Google. Nothing he likes better than talking about and making wings. I don't know how much time i have spent listening to him telling me about wings. And he has the tooling to knock one out real fast.

[Rex Schimmer]

I have got to agree with both Neil and Stan, the NACA4412 is a great wing section, low drag and high efficiency. Bob Dalton had a couple of wings on his Flashpoint streamliner and he ran over 450 with 2 wheel drive so they must have been working (Of course a top fuel motor on 85% soda pop helps!) If you want to build your own I would suggest contacting Woody at Design Dreams and he can help you to select the proper design and also with the info you need for making it. Building a wing is not hard but there are lots of ways to do it. I have done aluminum wings but I think the best wing would be built out of fiberglass or carbon fiber with a foam core. Lots of info on You Tube on how to do it.

Rex

[rmcmullin]

Thanks to all for your advice.  I?ll contact Bob Dalton and see if he can give me some help.

[RichFox]

Spoke to Bob yesterday. He knows you may call.

[panic]

Assuming the wing width and cross-section is fixed, the angle of attack will depend in part on the terminal speed. The lower the speed, more nose-down attitude (higher drag with higher downforce) helps. Each wing shape probably has a range of angles at high efficiency. Horizontal may not mean lowest effect + minimum drag if it's receiving air off a roof, back light, etc.
High wing placement increases efficiency by avoiding air disturbed by the bodywork, and also increases cantilever weight transfer.

[rmcmullin]

Spoke with Bob, and he was a wealth of information and good advice.  Thanks to everybody for the reference.