1/8 body shells and down force
 

Which bodies produce the most down force?
What kind of down force levels do they produce and how import to performance is the body ?

I hope there are positive replies to this question as I was wondering what makes certain bodies more responsive than other designs. I have A P909 and a blitz R11 all mounted on my Velox V8. Some say the P909 is more of a neutral handling body than my R11, but i hoestly cant 'feel' any difference on the track except that the R11 doesnt seem to wander off on the straights.

I dont know if there was any wind tunnel testing to actually prove once and for all that Body A has more downforce etc. than Body B. All I hear form the track is how the bodies feel from the driver's own reaction.

I stock up on the popular bodies for the moment and change them accrding to what the fastest driver is using. i hope this helps

Body shell is very important aerodynamic factor in RC racing, just like in real car racing too.

A correct 1/8 body shell can really make your car easier to drive. Your car will turn easier, very stable at fast cornering and at high speed straight.

I learnt my mistake the hardway ..... I was using shitty 1/8 protoform body before, I forget the name of body though...... maybe it was shadow body.

Until i switched with a new body, and voila ;) :sneaky:

Currently I use protoform P909 and Blitz R09. They are very nice body to drive. Stable and confident.

I dont plan to change new body yet.

It depends how long you've been racing. It takes a while to be able to tell the difference from one body to another. If you havent been racing for long just pick a body and taylor the setup to make the car work the way you like it to. Once ou get more expirience try a different body with the same setup and you will notice a difference. Also, keep in mind that the "feel" of a body can also change depending on where you mount it, the further forward you mount the body the more steering that particular body will provide.

team shepherd pierre
 

The bodies for ,the 1/8th on road cars is very vital and should never be taken for granted because ,the areo dynamics of the body for this class acts as and sheild against the car from lifting up in the front and assuring the rear end stays planted around and in turns ...team shepherd designed there own body which is more suited to navigate,the shepherd velox eleven ...the bodies besides there shapes are also weighed differently so its important you take into account the grams of the body to eliminate excessive weight to hinder your car from maximum speed ..

Not only is the body shell that you use important but how it is mounted also makes a huge difference.

Most bodies have marks on them showing where to put the holes for your body post. By moving the body shell forward on the chassis you will have more steering. Conversely moving the body toward the rear of the chassis will give more rear bite.

I always preferred to move the forward in order to get more steering and then use the rear air dam as required to settle down the rear of the car.

Lee

To answer a few question that were not addressed in the previous post so not to be redundant. There are no wind tunnels that can properly give the information a designer would need. You can make wind tunnels and watch the air flow over the body but obviously not the same as the costly wind tunnel test used for full size race cars.

Most bodies are designed by trying to match concepts used in full size race cars. If you want high front down force you can obtain this by the higher front wheel wells with deeper cut behind the wheel well that flows to the upper body. Just like wing concepts the air will flow the same and create down force. However there are more than one way to create a body with high frontal down force.

Steering is obtained by different ways but on the blitz you will notice two rises on each side of the front cut that goes down from the cab to the bumper. Those little wing cuts actually helps steering. The higher sides have created the stability in the cars.

For the average to good driver just using an updated good body and setting the car up to that body is the best idea that was mentioned above. Like the P909 and the R09 mentioned, these bodies have the high sides for the stability and each have a different way to create steering and front down force. So both are good and there are some others as well. I would not say that anyone body is designed for a certain car. Most cars are so similar that they don't know what body is on them.;)

I will mention that when we designed a body a couple years back we used world class drivers from the USA, China, and Italy. It was so interesting to get their feedback on the different prototypes as we progressed. These drivers were giving me almost the same exact words on how the body made their car react. It is amazing how good some of these drivers are wheeling these cars and how much feel they have. It was a fun experience to say the least. These drivers are the true designers working from the prototypes to the finished product.

Many years ago, Bolink in Lawrenceville, Ga built a wind tunnel in order to develop down force and drag info on the bodies that they supplied to the 1/10 and 1/12 scale electric cars. I think Rick Jordon designed and built it (it could have been Tim Morton who made it). At any rate it generated real data that was very useful on the race track.

As I remember it was built from hvac piping and the car with the body that was being tested sat on scales placed under each tire. These scales would read the pressure being exerted onto them during wind tunnel testing.

Another scale was attached horizontally to the car so that it would register the pressure (drag) that the body created.

They would test all the bodies mounted on the chassis with them mounted in the neutral position (where the molded in body post marks are) and also with the body moved both forward and backward on the chassis.

Back when I was traveling to many different tracks racing, this wind tunnel data allow me to change bodies and mount them in best position in order to get the handling characteristics that I needed for the track I was on. I felt like this info gave me a significant advantage over other racers.

Lee

What happened to this miniature wind tunnel? what kind of data can be read from varying weights on the front and rear axles?

What kind of motor / engine / blower is sufficient to produce the exact kind of wind the bodies will be driven? This sounds like 'mad science' but I will take more than a glance if its possible to fabricate a wind tunnel for 1/8 and 1/10 scale bodies