Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by tankenmate 3498 days ago
But downforce isn't appreciable until over 50mph (80kph), short of having stupidly oversized wings (which would drastically slow your acceleration) or active downforce (fans etc).
1 comments

This is actually why a lot of expensive sports cars have 0-60 times of 2.9 seconds. Unless you design specifically for it, it's difficult to generate much downforce at low speeds.

Related: if you've ever wondered why some drag cars (e.g. Funny cars) have short exhaust pipes angled up and back, now you know.

Similar to the Red Bull F1 car's exhaust-blown diffuser: http://jalopnik.com/5892403/the-exhaust-pipe-that-made-red-b...