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Definition
Aerodynamics can be used to control the handling of a car in high-speed corners
(greater than approximately 60 mph). Aerodynamic components push down on the car,
or create downforce, which helps the tires maintain better traction. The two main
aerodynamic upgrades are front bumpers and rear wings. While these two components
can increase cornering speeds when installed on your car, they will also increase
drag and limit your top speed. Overview
Aerodynamic components should only be used to tune high speed cornering characteristics.
They will have little or no effect on low-speed handling. Additionally, aerodynamics
should be relied upon to increase the overall grip of your car. It should not
be used to correct severe understeer or oversteer. Try to rely upon mechanical
suspension tuning to control understeer/oversteer. Only turn to aerodynamics as
a last resort. This is because aerodynamic grip cannot always be relied upon in
a racing situation. For instance, if you are closely following another car, there
will be less air flowing over your car because the car in front is breaking through
the air for you. The reduced airflow (and therefore downforce) on your car will
cause you to lose grip. If you rely heavily on aerodynamics to improve handling,
your car will become difficult to drive when you are in close proximity with other
cars. Introduction
Aerodynamic components work by deflecting air in
a way to create a downward force on the car. Air hits the car at an angle, which
pushes the car into the ground. At the same time, the air gets deflected up and
over the car. Aggressively sloped front bumpers and large wings will generally
create more downforce than small wings and mild front bumpers. Usually,
it is not possible to adjust the amount of front downforce without changing your
front bumper. However, wings often have inserts and angle adjustments that can
be used to change rear downforce. By increasing wing angle or adding wing inserts,
you increase downforce on the rear of the car. This pushes the rear wheels more
firmly into the ground and prevents them from slipping. Oversteer can be corrected
in this way. If your car understeers in high-speed corners, you can reduce the
angle of the wing or take out wing inserts to reduce rear downforce and correct
the understeer. Keep in mind that adding downforce will help you increase your
cornering speeds but will lower your top speed due to the extra drag. Still, you
will usually want to maximize the downforce because the majority of road courses
do not have very long straights. On a track with long straights, reducing downforce
(and therefore drag) may improve your lap times.
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