How would you do front wheel skirts ?

[Nerds laugh at me]

We all seen Basjoos' front wheel skirts.
Very clever indeed !
Just curious though about how completely foolish that it would be to attach a wire cage ( a horizontal and vertical support which encases the wheel ) around the front wheel and have it attached to parts of the wheel assembly that move but do not actually spin.
I was looking at the area behind the wheels and thinking that this could be done pretty easily.

If done incorrectly though this could be disasterous !

Another option would be to get some of those hub caps that have a spinner section that rotates, but has an outside section that remins stationary.
You could then attach a full wheel cover to this non spinning section.

( I am much more comfortabl with this idea myself.)

The advantage to something like these two ideas would be that the wheel cover would not increase the frontal area of the car. They would both be flush with the sides of the car.


Your thoughts ?

I had read a topic like this before. I hope I am not reposting something that has already been covered.

.

[basjoos]

That's basically how the Ford Probe did their front skirts. They had a fender enclosing the wheel and that moved with the steering which pressed against a flexible stretchy urethane sheet that comprised the outer skin of the wheel well.

[lunarhighway]

i wonder if you really need a full wheelwell cover, what if you combined moon hubs with a really tight wheelwell and close of the remaining space with some "brush" like meterial, like you find on the bottom of shop doors etc, to prevent draft. i've actually seen this used in the wheelwells of city buses, although i'm not sure if it was done for aero... some other flexible arc might work too.

taking this one step further these brushes could be applies to the bottom of the wheelwell preventing more air to move in from there as well. but also dirt and water wich micht in turn prevent corrosion, and splatters accross the sides of the vehicle.

it's not as "perfect" as a full wheel well cover but it's far more workable i think. the stress on the flexible parts would be far less than with a full cover.

thinking about it, perhaps brushes could also be used as airdams or other parts that are likely to break.

i'm not sure wher to obtain this kind of material though, but big doors might be a good place to start.

[Nerds laugh at me]

Lunarhighway - that's a great idea.
Thanks for mentioning it !

[sipnciv]

The brush material is used on the rear fenders of big rigs and trailers. I
believe it's to keep from kicking up debris on the cars behind/beside them.

Let us know how it turns out if you install some.

[trebuchet03]

So when you do an image search for "wheel fairing" you get images like this



Molds for something like this can be made somewhat easily.... Really, you could take the mold off the wheel (take it off the car) and then oversize it a tiny bit. If out of composite fiber -- I'd add a nice stiff rib from the mount point to the opposite side. Once you've made a mold of your wheel, cut away where necessary to fit your wheel hub/steering components.

To make it flush... I wouldn't increase the size of the wheel fairing itself. Instead, add a sheet that fits the wheel well.

[trebuchet03]

Here's some awesome wheel fairings



Keeps all that turbulence from spinning wheels contained



Just for fun... Look at that cross section!!!

[brucepick]

Definitely awesome.
I hope he has some way to see out.
Or maybe a closed course with hay bales lining the perimeter!

[trebuchet03]

Originally Posted by brucepick

Definitely awesome.
I hope he has some way to see out.
Or maybe a closed course with hay bales lining the perimeter!

So his vehicle is called "virtual edge" - it's not mounted in the photograph, but he's got a cooling system and LCD/video screen/camera As these vehicles typically don't have much in the way of peripheral vision, it's not that big of deal - as long as you can work with less depth perception

I think he raced at battle mountain -- which is a really long course with nothing to crash into (for the most part). Hay bales aren't necessarily "safer" as at 75mph, hitting a hay bale while sliding on your side....

[theclencher]