Making a rear wing made from wood?

[Persona]

Yeah bro i made my wing out of wood, it was mad jdm.

[Darkness and Light]

Eh, he says about 10 degrees on it and the wing is cambered. I can't say much about the effectiveness of the wing in that position or the modifications on the rest of his car. The craftsmanship is decent and conceptually it should work.

[Chris28]

Wow everyone is real mad today. Go for it, I think it would work well. If you get it the right shape it should be fine, maybe just use legit mounts made of of metal.

That being said if you drive your car on public roads at all you will be made fun of and the wing won't have any purpose. This should be a track only thing.

For everyone that made retarded comments think about it...if properly treated nothing will happen to the wood. I'm pretty sure the engineer in charge of designing that prop plane thought all this through before making a propeller out of wood.

[LBC.S14]

would you say the idea of this wing gives you wood?

[Persona]

I'm sure a wood wing wouldnt weigh too much, not.

There is no positive outcome of all this work to make a wing out of wood. Besides saying hey i did this!

[Darkness and Light]

Testing with an ailfoil simulator based on 10 degrees of attack, with a similarly shaped wing, 4 ft span, 0.8ft chord at 30 mph works out to 17 lbs. of downforce. Increase the angle of attack to 15 degrees and it bumps up to 21 lbs of downforce. The actual results would be somewhat lower because the wing wouldn't be seeing clean airflow.

Increase the angle of attack to 15 degrees, increase the span to 5ft, increase the chord to 1ft and at 30 mph it works out to 34 lbs. of downforce. At 40 mph that works out to 60 lbs. and it increases geometrically with increased airspeed.

[Darkness and Light]

Yes, a wood core wing would have the same airflow and more weight then a foam core, aluminum or carbon fiber wing. In a serious racing effort there is no reason to use wood instead of the alternative materials available.

However unlike foam or an entirely composite material wing the base shape can be designed and made using 3D design, it will be cheaper then aircraft grade aluminum, and I know a woodworker not a machinist.

[ILoveMyRHS13]

Why does your stock a** 240 need a wing?

MrGreenEyes says:"Tell him it's a 240, not a pinewood derby car.

[Chris28]

Why does your stock a** 240 need a wing?

MrGreenEyes says:"Tell him it's a 240, not a pinewood derby car.

How do you know it's stock? Maybe he's building a track car.

[breadbox]

I get wood magazine and remember reading about this.

The Splinter

http://www.joeharmondesign.com/

[ray666]

screw that wing idea i want real perfomance results, make a wooden header. i wanna know the power gains. or maybe even a wooden air filter.

[Darkness and Light]

Do paper or cloth filters count?

[Nali]

How do you know it's stock? Maybe he's building a track car.

Because if it was a performance car, then the wing would be adding more drag than downforce unless this track car goes over like 100Ks on a regular.At which point he would not be thinking of making a wing out of wood.

Get serious man

Its stock until proven otherwise.Noting that (the usual boltons) means its still stock.And this is not a track car.

[Bumnah]

People have made front spliters from wood.

to make a proper wing, wood is not the best material.

any aerodynamic gains would be lost by the heavier weight.

plus you can source used race car wings for cheap.

yeah you can do it, but why?

[S13Teddy]

I was going to say something really ignorant, negative, and mean.

But then I remembered, "If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all."

Deep breaths.

[blacksrjdm]

Ya, I'm with Nali. There is no defending him one way or another. "The usual bolt-ons", so, it might have; pointless intake, and maybe an exhaust. I would honestly be suprised if it is lowered and am doubting that he has installed a header. so not going fast enough to need a wing, let alone a wooden wing that is all laquered and so forth... If its a track car, then its an even worse idea. Its just an absolutely terrible idea. Just like the guy with the plywood front splitter. We never saw the demise of his front end, he just kindly went away because plywood does not belong as an airfoil for anything.

Getting back to the laquer... Dont ever turbo the car for fear that if you ever do shoot a flame out of the exhaust, the laquer will go up like the alter in "Meet the Parents". And then you will have a lack of downforce and worst of all...THE BACK OF YOUR CAR IS ON FIRE!!!!!

Give up the idea and go back to the drawing board. Also, Plane props such as the one you showed there in your pic, need to be inspected and changed frequently if the plane is flown often enough. My uncle flies a stunt byplane out of Cape May airport, if you are in the area you may have seen him in the byplane or a low wing pilon plane doing loops and such over the area. But he has several props, that are changed almost everytime he flies to copensate for different flying situations. He also checks and shaves and shapes them. That prop probably weighs around 130 lbs. So bad example.

[Darkness and Light]

Drag is more of a issue in "Does he really need a rear wing" then "What about using wood in a wing." No matter what you make the wing out of the same aerodynamics will be in place, a wooden wing would just weight more.

The wing would be about 3 feet above the exhaust, covered in fiberglass, and painted. Its far more likely a fiberglass bumper cover would be set on fire.

There are plenty of fiberglass items made using a wood core. Boats, oars, canoes, skateboards, snowboards, skis, table tennis paddles, etc. Many of them take a tremendous amount of abuse, far more then the 0 to 30 lbs of downforce a wing would likely see. The Z06 uses floorboards made from treated balsa wood sandwiched between carbon fiber.

Metal propellers are superior to wooden ones for durability reasons, I would check them carefully too if I were a pilot. But even in an area where weight is as critical as aviation a wooden propeller is still functional.

[sr20power]

really another thread of making something out of wood on a car? I'm with Teddy...

Good luck and post up pics when you ever get it done.

[blacksrjdm]

Well, as I said good luck. and so you know it will add whp to your car actually about 52 whp... That is if w=wood...

Honestly if you make the initial template of wood, and then make a finished part out of a lighter material that makes sense. But simply shaping a wing out of wood and then adding it to your car is just absurd. No matter how you defend it or what you put over the wood. It would be a better design in a lighter weight material. End of point.

[DMan II-40]

Not really against your idea since it is your car. But I would sculpt it out of foam instead of wood. It would weigh less and be MUCH easier to work with. The wing that guy made that u posted is pretty bad a**, good workmanship.

[nevertheless]

Dooo Ittt! and while your at it make a type X front bumper too.

[bersh240]

does it attach with wood screws?

[Tyler]

if you do, make it out of cherry wood. cause thats jdm as f***

[Darkness and Light]

I'm not disputing that other materials would perform better, not once in this thread did I claim that wood core would be stronger, lighter, more rigid or in way higher performance. I've explained there are other reasons in a one-off project wood is useful. If we really wanted to get serious about racing why bother with a 240SX at all?

I've already considered most of the concerns raised in this thread. What I am really looking for is any reasons why it is completely unfeasible like, "User _____ already tried it and got too much flex in the wing surface and it doesn't work." or "Fiberglass wrapped wood rots away quickly, and here are documented examples of why this is so." or "I am an aerospace engineer and according to these calculations the downforce gains from using a NACA wing vs. a flat or slightly cambered surface in an motorsports application are minimal." Even a "Using wood in a rear wing will violate causality ripping a tear in the space/time continuum and here is my 42 page proof."

[blacksrjdm]

Here it is in plain english.

GO AWAY UNLESS IT IS TO POST A PIC OF THE WOODEN WING THAT YOU HAVE CREATED.

Also, stop trying to reinvent the wheel. No on has tried to make their own wing out of any material that I have seen on here,let alone made of wood. and except for the one car I saw that had the 280z replica type wing that was made and moulded of metal and welded on properly, I dont know of anyone else on here that has made their own wing. There are enough companies that make very nice looking rear wings for 240s that there isnt really a reason to make your own design.

[Darkness and Light]

No offense, but you're not a moderator. I'll let this thread drop since this seems to be a dry well, but you seem to be taking my posting as a personal attack. Whatever.

[OutToWinPAHC]

Here it is in plain english.

GO AWAY UNLESS IT IS TO POST A PIC OF THE WOODEN WING THAT YOU HAVE CREATED.

Also, stop trying to reinvent the wheel. No on has tried to make their own wing out of any material that I have seen on here,let alone made of wood. and except for the one car I saw that had the 280z replica type wing that was made and moulded of metal and welded on properly, I dont know of anyone else on here that has made their own wing. There are enough companies that make very nice looking rear wings for 240s that there isnt really a reason to make your own design.

Someone did make their own wing from styro and fiberglass. It came out very subtle and nice.

[Nali]

GO AWAY UNLESS IT IS TO POST A PIC OF THE WOODEN WING THAT YOU HAVE CREATED.

[PyR0NiAk]

While blacksrjdm usually comes off as an ***hole, he's usually right as well.... Just making a point.