UBC Engineering Design: Aerodynamic Kit - Short Questionnaire

[gwh0803]

Hi fellow RS members,

We are a team of students from UBC Integrated Engineering and for our yearly design project, we have collaborated with my buddy and we plan to build a fully functional aero kit for his car. Because we're not too familiar with the car modification and motorsports scene, we have come here to humbly ask for insights and guidance.

The design course is also co-joined with a business course, meaning that parts of the design requirements involve having the end deliverable to be "marketable" and "be able to defend its market shares", as per requested by our professors. To acquire a better understanding of the needs of the end users, we have already attended car meets and autocross/track events. However, such survey could not cover the entire scope, hence we believe an online survey is necessary in order to tailor our design objective to the needs of the end users.

A brief background:

Our project caters towards the needs of motorsports enthusiasts who track their daily driven vehicle. Because of the difference in demands for aerodynamic performance in various motorsports events, we have narrowed down our target audience to participants in specific high-speed driving events such as track and drag racing.

Our project will consist of five parts, where each will be built to work as part of a whole system:
- Front splitter
- Rear diffuser
- Side skirts
- Under tray
- Spoiler

After some preliminary research and survey, we have come up with the following primary goals as part of our design:
- Purely function-based, meaning the entire system is for track use only, for the dimensions may be deemed to be non-street suitable, even if legal.
- Removable and re-attachable in short amount of time, where the system can be stowed away to maintain daily driving comfort/regulations.

Being in an advanced engineering course, we have various resources at our disposal, ranging from wind tunnel and computational fluid dynamics to CNC machining and access to composite materials. Because of our limited budget, the car we will be working with is a lightly modified ’92 Civic Si (EG6).

We are now in the intermediate stages of design where changes happen on an hourly basis. Enclosed is a short questionnaire, where we hope to gather as many feedback as we possibly can. If possible, please add in your personal experience and insights as well, for we would love to hear individuals’ stories both in the drivers and the enthusiasts’ perspective.

Of course, I’m more than happy to answer any further questions related to the project.

Thank you for your inputs!

Edit:
As per requested by forum users, the online survey is now active.
IGEN 330 - Design Stage Questionnaire Survey
Please feel free to add in any further remarks/experiences that you would like to share.

[Energy]

Use surveymonkey or one of those free websites for your survey.

[Shorn]

nobody's gonna do a survey that they have to edit in microsoft paint themselves lol.

put it on a survey site like he said ^

[gwh0803]

Survey link now active. Please feel free to add in any further remarks/experiences that you would like to share.

Thank you for the feedbacks.

[Ronith]

You should include make/model. It makes a huge difference on the price of parts for certain cars.

[AVS_Racing]

done, lol hope my input helps

[CorneringArtist]

Thanks for the proper survey. I honestly wish you guys good luck, and hopefully papier mache isn't what you use to mock up the aero parts.

[Ronith]

There are other factors that effect the part price and functionality:
-D.O.T./Transport Canada approved
-COO(Country of Origin)
-Materials used
-Warranty coverage

[124Y]

Done, and good luck with your project!

[!e.lo_]

done and done.
aero parts? oh I bought a lot of them recently lol

Spoiler!

[sdubfid]

Check out aerocivic.com

He used an eg body style as well. 95US mpg at 60mph mainly due to aerodynamics.

I think it would benefit drag racing and higher speed events the most. If you make an aerocivic style kit I will donate half your entrance fee to the street legals at mission next year to test before and after to see if it really works in a performance application.

Spoiler!

[lowside67]

Originally Posted by Ronith

There are other factors that effect the part price and functionality:
-D.O.T./Transport Canada approved
-COO
-Materials used
-Warranty coverage

Basically none of those are applicable as they said it is a track only aero package. Materials used maybe, but the rest are all moot points.

Because the EG is a popular race platform, there is lots of "garage" engineering but most of the series that they are raced in have very limited aero allowances so most are just aimed at reducing drag rather than producing any meaningful downforce. You will also have a really hard time putting a proper flatbottom on the car high enough to actually get some air under it without keeping the car at a crazy high ride height.

Mark

[gwh0803]

Hi all,

Thank you for your inputs. I was thinking maybe we can share our design and build experience in the upcoming months. Not so much of a member's build journal, but more like a documentary with engineering principles and the step-by step breakdown process to the final deliverable.

If interested, I will be more than happy to upload related things (maybe in the technical section) in the future.

Cheers,
B.

[gwh0803]

Originally Posted by !e.lo_

done and done.
aero parts? oh I bought a lot of them recently lol

Spoiler!

I'm extremely fond of DC2 ITR with JDM front, currently saving up for one. Nice car!

[gwh0803]

Originally Posted by sdubfid

Check out aerocivic.com

He used an eg body style as well. 95US mpg at 60mph mainly due to aerodynamics.

I think it would benefit drag racing and higher speed events the most. If you make an aerocivic style kit I will donate half your entrance fee to the street legals at mission next year to test before and after to see if it really works in a performance application.

Spoiler!

Unfortunately, the earliest track day in mission is too close to the deadline, hence we will have to head down south to do the high speed testing in January.

On a side note, we have connections with the UBC Supermileage team and they would love that design. They're currently working on something along those lines but to a much more radical degree.

[kunoman1]

Finished, good luck~!

[rsx]

I think a more marketable product would be to develop a kit to improve gas efficiency for daily drivers. There are tons of aftermarket parts for track days as it is.