Cross Wind Stability of High Performance Road Cars

The stability of high performance road cars to changes in cross winds has become increasingly more important in modern low drag high performance cars.

With the emphasis on performance cars having low drag and add on devices to reduce aerodynamic lift at speed. There is the possible problem that if these improvements are lost with yaw angle, the transient changes can be detrimental to handling.

Interpretation of the aerodynamic parmeters which are important for aerodynamic stability can be determined from wind tunnel tests and incorporated into the design at an early stage of development.

Wind tunnel tests have been conducted at scale over a moving road with detail force and pressure measurements taken to evaluate the magnitude of stability criteria such as, Rate of change of lift and its distribution with yaw.