Side Duct

 

Side duct

Said air ducts make any car look real cool when you put it on your car. They are found behind front or rear wheel. They were first adapted for racing coupes. The concept is to make an aerodynamic design on the side that allows air to flow out from the vehicle. Aerodynamics of the vehicle requires that the wind should flow smoothly through the vehicle, speeding it up not slowing it down. With the sleek body design of most sports cars, an air duct further reduces the wind ability to affect performance by providing a vent for air to go through.

 

Side duct on Audi R18 9-L LMP car

 

Side ducts are primarily seen on race cars for two reasons, because brake and engine cooling is crucial, and because most serious race cars will use a front underbody diffuser that channels airflow toward the rear of the front wheel well. Conventional fender designs trap much of the turbulent air coming off the top and back of the tire generated by the counter rotation of the tires and wheels. Combined with hot air moving through the engine bay and brakes, this generates losses and drag. Side ducting not only provides a smooth outlet for these hot and turbulent gasses, but also turns the flow to exit smoothly along the side of the car instead of directly outward, which would interfere with the turbulent curtain generated by the canards and vortex generators. This reduction of air stagnation inside the bay also helps pull more fresh air through the cooling system.

 

Side duct

 

Air ducts can come separate or with customized body kit assemblies. Air ducts will improve your car's speed and make fuel consumption less. The holes on the air ducts are usually large enough to prevent obstruction from objects coming from the vehicle's travel environment.

 

Side duct on Nissan GTR

Side duct on Nissan-GT-R road car

 

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Some useful links:

- f1technical.net, , a great site with a lot of technical information’s and explanations. Site is updated daily with news from F1 word.

 - autosport.com, This site is a legend. A bible for racing lovers. News from all around the word. Unfortunately, to get access to all news, interviews and to open the site completely you should be subscribed to Autosport magazine. Anyway, great read.

 - f1network.net, Good read. Fan’s from every team can find his team forum. For me, like Ferrari fan, forum is the best Ferrari forum, very visited, with great threads.

 - Ferrarif1forum.com is another great Ferrari site for Ferrari fan’s like me. Site is relatively new, but great fun, with great discussion, news and Ferrari F1 car Development topic. Twitter and Facebook are also there.

 - f1.gpupdate.net, Site with fresh news from Formula 1

 - planetf1, another site with many different articles, news and statistics. Biased toward British teams, but anyway good read.

 - gurneyflap.com, Great history site. You can learn a lot from this site. Pictures, cars and many many more. Great.

 - fia.com, La Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, representing the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users. Head organisation and ruler in auto sport.

 - wikipedia.org, I don’t believe that I have to tell you anything about this site. It’s not about Formula 1 technology, but you can learn a lot about that too.

 - suttonimages.com. source of great images from autosport

 - carbibles.com, a great site for normal car users. Here you can find explanations of almost everything about your car and how it works. Technical reviews and explanations of some in-car gadgets.