Reply to "Ground Effects"

Hi Bob,
I bought your polished Edelbrock Performer intake from you July 2003. We talked a little and you said if I ever get a chance to track the Pantera, I should do it. You drove your Pantera down to do the track with the Space City Pantera guys. I'm doing what you said, just like you did. Drive it there, race it around, drive it back. About the same driving distance for me as you did that time.

If you know where I (or we) can get this book, please post a link. I have lots of Pantera books, and like to keep a library of good stuff. Mostly, I use the index and table of contents to get the chapters I like for the moment and don't go cover to cover, page by page for such research materials. Thanks for this tip.

Actually, the F-1 Decade program was not as enlightening as the Round One Qualifying, Formula One, Malaysia. There's more close ups of the cars in the qualifying, to get a good look at the ground effects. I noticed how the main ground effects are at the rear of the car, where the greatest mass (weight) is. Also heard a comment about putting the lower rear winglets about an inch and a half distance from the front edge of the tire, so if the tire deflates, and wobbles on the rim, it doesn't get cut by the rear trailing edge of the wing.

I also noticed that the lowest point of ground clearance is at the leading edge of the barge board. That's the aerodynamic device positioned about under the F-1 driver's knees. I think it is rules changes that prevents the front wing from spanning all the way across in front. Anyway, there's always some understeer, so more effort is made to adjust that front wing all the time.

I found myself crawling under my Pantera immediately after the F-1 programs to view instalation of a Pantera front ground effects device. I have the little GTS 'chin spoiler' and can see that it will be easy to put a plate of aluminum from under that and make connecting devices thru the oval holes in the front valance. (Don't want to be drilling holes everywhere, must be able to convert back to stock.) Make some similar ovals of steel, tap and thread holes, and twist 90 degrees after fitting thru lower valance holes. The front under tray shall extend rearward to the back-bottom of the radiator. Then I see the water tube tunnel is in need of a flat vertical section of aluminun to create a vacuum chamber, at the part where the water tubes fit to the hoses going to the radiator.

I was looking at those front barge boards thinking, these guys have that thing extending forward to scoop up air and deflect it to the sides, lowering air pressure from flowing underneath. Then I thought, that would be a possibility to do something similar on the Pantera, to divert the air away from the center and to the flat sides, would lower the air pressure in the water tube tunnel, and speed it up on the flat undersides. That may work, when I bottom out on speed bumps, it's the area under the seats. So, if something was lower than that, and it was very close to the front wheels, then it sill wouldn't bottom out.

I may go 200 mph, once in my lifetime, at an open highway, sanctioned event. It will take some time. I will need a taller fifth gear, and maybe one tooth higher final drive gear, along with a few more rpm's and horsepower. There's no hurry to do it all today or anything though.

The purpose is simply to have a dual purpose Pantera. Street and track. For flat/smooth tracks, the car can be lowered for maximum downforce, leading to better cornering G-loading and more grip for braking, and more stability at top speed on the straights. Then for the street, it's back up to normal ground clearance, and somewhat diminished downforce, but still better stability at freeway speed and better grip for braking from higher freeway speeds, like for an emergency r if a deer jumps in front of me, I can really stop fast on the freeway. (That deer thing happened to me once outsdie Flagstaff, AZ, seemed like it was just inches as that deer went boink, boink, boink, and crossed from one side of the forest to the other, 30 yards in three boinks.)

A little creative metal bending and a few hundred bucks for a little experiment. Starting out with paper patterns using grocery sacks, then cardboard mockups, then some thin aluminum to get a mock-up fitted, then some heavier gauge aluminum plating that I can have fabricated with all the tabs and holes and bends defined clearly by the thin gauge mock up for the fabricator. And maybe 500 to 800 more pounds of downforce at 160 mph. A nice solid, heavy feel to the steering wheel at 160 mph, and knowingI can cut 20% off the braking distance at that speed is the goal. These Pantera's go that fast, from the factory, so maybe some inexpensive ground effects make them a little safer at those speeds....

I just think it's fun.

Ron Norman
#THPNNJ05201