Find Out How Aerodynamics Developed Over The Years
by AllAutoExperts | 29 January, 2016
After the World Wars have ended, the automotive world took a new direction and started developing in a faster manner than ever.
Everything concerning cars, from design, to performance and aerodynamics, went up in a very short time. Well, aerodynamics has been ignored for a while, since people didn't quite understand its real importance at that time.
The aerodynamic efficiency has been carefully studied since this is a very important detail in creating race cars. The real progress in aerodynamics has begun only when the car races became popular. Aerodynamics refers to the car's interaction with the wind. The resistance coefficient is used to calculate how the wind helps or slows the car down.
The aerodynamic tunnels have been used in the 30s and 40s of the last century in order to help the cars not get slower because of the wind. The guys of those decades learned the aerodynamic principles the hard way. But they got rewarded with important discoveries, like the one saying that the wind resistance can be used in order to help the car reach better performances.
Later, in the 60s, the car producers started using rear wings. These aren't the nowadays spoilers. Nowadays fastest cars, like McLaren P1, are filled with aerodynamic details, including the rear wings. Others, like Pagani Huayra and Ferrari LaFerrari, combine the rear wings with mobile panels in the car's body or hood in order to improve the wind resistance.
Using aerodynamics correctly ensures more stability when on the fastest speeds. Technology is progressing daily, so we'll just have to wait and see what the future supercars will bring when it comes to aerodynamics.