This pushes my buttons. I've been planning some further airflow work, this is only giving me ideas...
http://www.chevrolet.com/corvette-stingray.html
Scroll down a little to the exterior section and you'll find some animated airflow diagrams. The wireframe option is best, and right-clicking gave me a full screen option. I dig.
I read an article in Automotive Engineering that covered all the things on the Z06 that are there for aero reasons. How everything had a purpose. Then I watched Top Gear and had to listen to Jerijerk rant on about all the useless tacked on stuff, and how a Jag Type F is better... 
Time to start playing with some aero on the S13 now
Pretty cool animation
The level of engineering/development is awesome, but personally I would give up some performance for a cleaner design.
bravenrace wrote: ...Then I watched Top Gear and had to listen to Jerijerk rant on about all the useless tacked on stuff, and how a Jag Type F is better...
I hate when I'm forced to watch the BBC series Top Gear here on American soil. Leave me alone Jerijerk!
p.s. the F-Type is better if you enjoy looking at things which are pretty. I mean, let's be honest, the C7 is ugly as sin.
Is anyone surprised at Clarkson's OPINION? He's always derided the Corvette and lauded the Jag and Astons even when they completely drop the ball. He did like the ZR1 when he was in the US, but once he got back to the tiny, BS roads in the UK it was just too big for his preferences.
Also, he loves to poke fun at the US because he knows he'll get a rise out of us, where as the Aussies would just poke fun right back at him.
Great animation and information though. Thanks for sharing!
Nice animations. I spent a few minutes looking at the Chevy website and have no idea what the differences are between the three LTs. Not sure why there are even three lieutenants in the first place, but shouldn't the website tell me what the strangly named trim packages are and what features they offer. All I saw was the price difference between them before I gave up.
EDIT: I went back and now see the trim descriptions described under the models and specs tab. Don't go to the build and price tab until you know what you want. I withdraw my complaint I guess - if I were in the market for a new vette the website would not deter me.
In reply to pres589:
When I see that:
I see this:
just played backwards
looks like a drop vent hood... no? Albeit far more care in design and application...
Bumboclaat wrote:
Neat animations, especially the wireframe ones. However, I can't help but notice the marketing speak that first confronts you...
Chevrolet Marketing Department said: Throwing off the constraints of tradition, our world-class engineers started over from scratch...
Which literally translates into:
Google Translate said: All of our most experienced and talented engineers got the berkeley out of Detroit, and the previous design wasn't worth a damn
That's almost as bad as marketing a "Nova" in Mexico.
Any time someone is compelled to use the "world-class" cliché to describe any part of their own organization, it only frames the entire organization as that much less so. This is by no means exclusive to GM, or even the automotive industry.
pres589 wrote:bravenrace wrote: ...Then I watched Top Gear and had to listen to Jerijerk rant on about all the useless tacked on stuff, and how a Jag Type F is better...I hate when I'm forced to watch the BBC series Top Gear here on American soil. Leave me alone Jerijerk! p.s. the F-Type is better if you enjoy looking at things which are pretty. I mean, let's be honest, the C7 is ugly as sin.
A matter of taste. I'm not particularly fond of the F Type's styling, but I love the Vette.
Driven5 wrote: Neat animations, especially the wireframe ones. However...Chevrolet Marketing Department said: Throwing off the constraints of tradition, our world-class engineers started over from scratch...The above statement literally translates into: "All of our most experienced and talented engineers got the berkeley out of Detroit, and the previous design wasn't worth a damn." Any time someone is compelled to use the term "world-class" to describe any part of their own organization, it only frames the entire organization as that much less so. This is by no means exclusive to GM, or even the automotive industry.
And even with no constraints, they still ended up with a fiberglass body, pushrod V8 and a transverse rear leaf! Guess tradition wasn't completely wrong 
Just ignore the marketing guys. Everything is always all-new, world-class, gluten-free with those guys. Luckily, they don't actually design the car so they're just noise.
Yeah, but it's a shame they didn't funnel all of the money wasted coming up with that back to the engineers instead. 
Sat in an F-type awhile back. Was amazed at the amount of widgetry. Motorized air vents... wow..
Wonder how much you could take off one with a crash diet? (not to mention off the price)
In reply to Keith Tanner:
I think that the hood is carbon fiber. The roof may be carbon fiber on the Z06 when it comes out. I'm also a little surprised that the headlamps on the Corvette are very similar in shape, size, and position as the F-type and the new Viper so they all look similar compared to earlier generations.
It was interesting, I want to see the total picture. Not here it is through the nose and now over the hood.
Clarkson liked the ZR-1 in the Vegas trip.
The "regular" roof is already carbon fiber and is light. The girl I know who drives one pulls it off herself and she's all of 5'3" and not a burly chick. Someone digging through GM technical papers showed that GM lost something like 30% of the density of their composites in the last cycle. CF has only very …minor weight reduction now and is more of a marketing/strength thing in specific applications.
I read too much about this car.
mazdeuce wrote: The "regular" roof is already carbon fiber and is light. The girl I know who drives one pulls it off herself and she's all of 5'3" and not a burly chick.
Pics and/or marital status please!
Carbon, fiberglass - whatever. It was a joke at the expense of the marketing crew
Flight Service wrote: It was interesting, I want to see the total picture. Not here it is through the nose and now over the hood. Clarkson liked the ZR-1 in the Vegas trip.
With judicious right-clicking, you can isolate both the looping movies and the fly-ins and see them in decent resolution. The fly-ins show how the bits and pieces link up. For example, you get a better idea of what's going on with the top of the rear arches on the fly-in to the rear of the car.
I've got a magnehelic gauge sitting here that was going to be used to check a few things like wheel well pressures. I think it's going to get deployed all over the place.
Another cheap way to play with airflow is to get an air gun with a long nozzle and tie a 2-3' string to the end. Aim that at features of the car and you can clearly see laminar flow, turbulence and even dead air. It's pretty cool.
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