RC Ground Effects

[Wired361]

Recently, my friends and I all took a racing course (1:1), and during this course, i learned alot about the phenomena of ground effects. They were originally hated by pilots because when they would get close enough to the ground to land, the plane would almost be sucked onto the ground, making it really hard to land. Well, some genius took this as an opportunity for on road racing such as f1, touring, grand prix etc. If you look at todays RC cars, the traction has become solely based on CG and tire compound. Well I took it upon myself to develop an effective off-road RC ground effect vehicle, that could have traction so high that a 60 degree turn going 30 would be no sweat. Using molded CF i made myself a prototype, as a template, i used the underside of the incredible ferrari enzo, i thought it would be a great place to start considering its great scale record. I used an old on road car that i had and put some off road tires at set off for the track. I tried it out without the mold on first, it ran ok. Then i put the mold on and was in shock of how much it held the ground, literaly, when i went down the back strecth, the mold would actually slow the car down because it had sucked itself into the dirt, so in effect it worked. Sadly, i am out of time and money to continue my project, so i urge any of u to continue on with this phenom. Actually i lied , i do have the money, but im using it on my e-maxx because thats what i race. o yah, the car had about a 2 in. ride hight while it was on the track.


I LOVE THIS SITE, THE ONLY THING I COULD ASK IS FOR MORE VIDEOS OF BL EMAXXES CLEARING TRIPLES IN AN INDOOR TRACK!!!!!!!


Thanks
Wired:C:

[lipomax]

Wired361: What do you think cutting out the rear bumper does on a TC? By cutting out the rear end and trimming the body as close as possible to the wheels and ground, it creates suction as the air passes over and around the body. However, for a decent amount of ground effects, you need to go really fast to have an appreciable amount. At 60 mph, my TC is absolutely useless w/o a good body. A good body and wing actually produces decent downforce! Did you ever look at the 1/12 scale bodies? With the rear wing built onto the body and the whole rear section cut out, there is tremendous ground effect created by that type of body.

[lipomax]

I think for MT's, ground effects is useless. Too much ground clearance. Won't work. Need to have suction to the ground.

[HotnCold]

so are your saying that when my maxx is 6 feet off the ground if it had better ground effects it would only be 5 feet off the ground, or that it would turn better in the air? - Cause now it truns like crud in the air.... It does get the nose down in a hurry when i need it to though ( Especially when i have to teach a 1/10 scale xxxt truck a lesson ). :L:

[Wired361]

Its not really the height of the truck/car that matters, it the template of the underside, all you need is the suction to the ground to create the virtual traction, and lipomax, to answer your question, this is a very primitive version of ground effect, it is somewhat effective, but in comparison to the effect you can get out of a true effect template, its like a toy from playskool.