High Lift Wing Design for Race-Car Applications

The transfer of high-lift wing design methodology from the aerospace industry to race-car application faces certain difficulties due to differences in the operating conditions. Three typical examples are used to demonstrate these different operating conditions; the first of which is the extreme ground effect experienced by the front wings of various open wheel race cars. The following examples focus on the strong interaction between wings and the vehicle's body and on the unique features of certain small-aspect ratio, high-downforce rear wings. Consequently, a well designed airplane airfoil cannot be used automatically on a race car. However, when accounting for these different operating conditions, traditional aeronautical tools can be used to develop an equally successful race car wing. The approach then is to define a desirable target pressure distribution which may be borrowed from airplane applications. Next, using experimental or numerical tools (to account for the different operating conditions) the wing airfoil shape can be developed to fit within the boundaries of the targeted pressure distribution.