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Highest Speed with Stock Aerodynamics

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Old Jan 11, 2004 | 05:28 PM
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Highest Speed with Stock Aerodynamics

What is the highest speed for an FD with the stock aerodynamics (front and rear spoiler)?
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Old Jan 11, 2004 | 05:43 PM
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i forgot the page that shows the CD and CLR of stock aero, but u will not be flyin till 170 i guess. dunno much on this subject
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Old Jan 11, 2004 | 05:46 PM
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A friend of mine did 170 indicated twice on his way back from Vegas. This was WITH a passenger in the car. He said he could have gone a little faster.
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Old Jan 11, 2004 | 06:09 PM
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done 155 around a large sweeping turn with passenger. speed was still climbing and felt rock solid to the pavement. tires are old so i let off
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Old Jan 11, 2004 | 06:25 PM
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An FD is faster without the stock rear wing. The rear wing adds more drag than actual downforce.
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Old Jan 11, 2004 | 06:47 PM
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My car started to lift (the steering got lighter) at 145. I'm in a base model and my bushings are going out all around.
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Old Jan 11, 2004 | 06:53 PM
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I got 150 and let off becuse it started to feel real light. I have no spoiler. She still felt like she had alot left in her.
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Old Jan 11, 2004 | 06:58 PM
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so would an aftermarket body kit increase your aerodynamics? the feed or stock 99 kit i would think would increase it, but some of the kits like the veilside.... they may be a bit too much.
also lowering the car should help too.
if you plan on going over 160mph, make sure you have "Z" rated tires, or may not live to tell what your max speed was.

quickfini, what type of wing adds downforce instead of drag? does the stock wing cause downforce at lower speeds? it looks like you have the 99spec spolier in your pic, how is it operational wise?
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Old Jan 11, 2004 | 07:13 PM
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Racing Beat's car went airborn at over 215mph on the saltflats. Other than being extremely lowered and having aerodynamic wheel covers, it had a virtually stock body (including the R1 wing).
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Old Jan 11, 2004 | 07:21 PM
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i wnet 265km/h in my car didnt' feal liek btu i was scared my tires would blow. dotn think any body stuff helped i thougth the gay wign ont aht back that came with my car was goin to rip off but it held on for life.
joel
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Old Jan 11, 2004 | 09:05 PM
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150 car full of luggage. I stopped accelerating due to the self-preservation instinct not a lack of power.
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Old Jan 11, 2004 | 09:08 PM
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Some of you guys are hilarious. If you think that an aftermarket body kit designed solely for looks improves the aerodynamics of a car that Mazda spent hundreds of hours in a wind tunnel on, you need help.....

BTW, I've heard from more than one source that the Veilside kit damn near shakes itself off the car at speeds above 120 mph due to the terrible aerodynamics of the kit....
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Old Jan 11, 2004 | 09:23 PM
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Originally posted by rynberg
Some of you guys are hilarious. If you think that an aftermarket body kit designed solely for looks improves the aerodynamics of a car that Mazda spent hundreds of hours in a wind tunnel on, you need help.....

what about the 99 spec?
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Old Jan 11, 2004 | 09:34 PM
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Originally posted by rynberg
If you think that an aftermarket body kit designed solely for looks improves the aerodynamics of a car that Mazda spent hundreds of hours in a wind tunnel on, you need help.....
I agree.
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Old Jan 11, 2004 | 09:34 PM
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I just wanted to add that the car was still pulling pretty hard when I let off. The rear end certainly made some strange noises when I let off though...
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Old Jan 11, 2004 | 09:43 PM
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Originally posted by rynberg
Some of you guys are hilarious. If you think that an aftermarket body kit designed solely for looks improves the aerodynamics of a car that Mazda spent hundreds of hours in a wind tunnel on, you need help.....

BTW, I've heard from more than one source that the Veilside kit damn near shakes itself off the car at speeds above 120 mph due to the terrible aerodynamics of the kit....
lol so true i think the kit that was on my car when i bougth it was going to all off the front and the wing. if it did woudl ahve more of a reason to spend more moeny ont he car. oh well veilsid will be gone soon. and then my project finaly starts:d
joel
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Old Jan 11, 2004 | 09:59 PM
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Originally posted by rynberg
Some of you guys are hilarious. If you think that an aftermarket body kit designed solely for looks improves the aerodynamics of a car that Mazda spent hundreds of hours in a wind tunnel on, you need help.....
Don't even try. I've been preaching it for years and they just won't listen.
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Old Jan 11, 2004 | 10:20 PM
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body kits migth have a better flowing bummber but i still think mazda has the aero dynamics down unless a kit was tested and stuff. so othere then flow and looks thats all i think they are for:d
joel
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Old Jan 11, 2004 | 10:28 PM
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I read a post or an article somewhere that said the one of the things that would help an FD would be some type of diffuser system that ran the length of the car, similar to the Enzo Ferrari. If you look at "back in black" Racing Beat's second Gen 3 that went 242, the rear spoiler was SIGNIFICANTLY larger, almost like the porsche duck tail design. Even then, big Jim almost lost it as the rear end got light. Only the parachute opening kept him from losing it again!
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Old Jan 11, 2004 | 10:50 PM
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topped my out a few weeks back in ideal weather conditions and hit 172 which was way too fast for me kinda scary and thats with a passenger
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Old Jan 12, 2004 | 01:30 AM
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Gotta remember about that Bonneville run, that ground is not solid. The power to the ground required to hit those speeds most definately has to keep the powered wheels spinning faster than you are moving. Let off throttle and they slide. I bet that is what happened on the second run as opposed to it being an aerodynamic issue.
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Old Jan 12, 2004 | 01:31 AM
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Okay first of all, the speedometer gets more and more optimistic the faster you go. So while the dash says one thing, you're going a good bit slower. That is of course unless you are running tires with a diameter that is hugely smaller than stock.
Originally posted by SNracing
so would an aftermarket body kit increase your aerodynamics? the feed or stock 99 kit i would think would increase it, but some of the kits like the veilside.... they may be a bit too much.
also lowering the car should help too.
if you plan on going over 160mph, make sure you have "Z" rated tires, or may not live to tell what your max speed was.

quickfini, what type of wing adds downforce instead of drag? does the stock wing cause downforce at lower speeds? it looks like you have the 99spec spolier in your pic, how is it operational wise?
You can't "increase" aerodynamics. There are basically three aerodynamic forces that act on a car in motion: lift, downforce, and drag. Lift sucks the car up off the pavement, downforce pushes it down, and drag pulls it backwards. You can also have negative lift where the car actually sucks itself down to the pavement, this is not the same thing as downforce. Generally it is impossible to change the way a car responds to or creates one of these forces without also changing its response/creation of the others. For example if you set up a wing to create more downforce, that also creates more drag.

If you're looking to actually improve the aerodynamics of the car the source to go is Mazdaspeed. They're pretty much the only aftermarket company that has the resources to test their kits in wind tunnels. Some of the companies that make body parts for circuit racing are also probably designed with aerodynamics in mind such as RE-Amemiya, FEED and Pan Speed. But aside from this stuff most of the kits otu there are just for style and probably do more harm than good to how the car moves through the air.
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Old Jan 12, 2004 | 01:39 AM
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what does the car do stock ? HOW FAST? mph wise
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Old Jan 12, 2004 | 01:43 AM
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Originally posted by doncojones
Okay first of all, the speedometer gets more and more optimistic the faster you go. So while the dash says one thing, you're going a good bit slower. That is of course unless you are running tires with a diameter that is hugely smaller than stock.
Maybe with an older cable driven speedometer, but I took my car up to 180 mph indicated on the dyno and it was off by 2 mph (178 mph measured).

Electronic speedometers are fairly accurate when calibrated properly. Inaccuracy can creep in with the comparator circuit's conversion to output usable by an analog needle indicator, but it's still much more accurate than the cable driven speedometers.
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Old Jan 12, 2004 | 01:53 AM
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i did 120 on a slight up hill/offcamber turn and it started to get floaty, then again... slight up hill/offcamber turn haha
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