[Howard Jones]

The problem with the front end of the car not producing downforce is a very simple thing to fix. The problem is, to do so changes the entire look of a GT40.

Have a look at the yellow peril on the GTD club websight. The front of that car is just about what you end up with if you leave the radiator in the front and address the rest.

To fix a GT40 nose you must draw a line from the leading edge of the nose FORWARD and down, not towards the rear. At the lowest point of the forward reaching nose you must add a spliter.

Then at the sides in front of the front wheels the bodywork must not work its way inward towards the centerline from the top of the wheelarch as it sweeps downward. It should continue straight down from the top of the wheel arch towards a point that connects to the slopeing nose and tie into the spliter.

This alone will prevent most of the air infront of the car from getting under the car. With the goal being to get all the airflow up over the top of the car and in contact with the body without generating turbulance.

The other place to be fixed is the lower sections of the side pods. The sidepods should continue straight downward from the bottom of the door to the lowest point along the sill not curve inward and under like a GT40. This prevents airflow comming off the sides of windshield (high pressure) and airflow along the side of the car from flowing to the low pressure area along the side of the car behind the rear wheels. Once the airflow is into this area it continues on under the car.

These two things are clearly seen in the design of every modern full bodied racecar. Once these things are done the only thing left to do at the front is to move the radiator so the nose can be even more sloped downward from the lower windshield line towards the leading edge of the nose.

You then put the radiators in the the side pods and exit the air right in front of the rear wheels where it has nearly no time to slip under the car before is has been pulled into the low pressure area behind the car. This also keeps the radiator exaust off of the rear wing. A clean airflow is a high downforce airflow when it comes to airfoils. This all ends up looking like a 962.

The rear of the car behind the rear door opening line is pretty good by modern standards, but it would be good to seal the entire bottom of the car instead of an open bottom engine room like our GT40s. We might be able to pull in enough air from the top of the rear bodywork above the headers with NACA ducts into the engine room and since the bottom is inclosed it will not end up under the car. Thsi will inclease pressure in the engine room and force the hot air to exit out the rear of the bodywork behind and below the tail spoiler like the GT40.

As to creature comforts and driving long distance. If the seating area is large enough, including foot room, the seats are comfortable, air temp is kept at about 75 degrees, and there is enought room between the seats so that the people in the car are not on top of each other then thats about all that can be done. Ride quality will be a function of spring rates and shock dampening to a large extent. Both of these can be adjusted by the owners as they see fit. I like go carts whereas others like cadilacs. It's all in the shocks, springs, and rollbars.

The AC system is going to be just at a 100 pounds, I think we must and can live with the extra weight with our 2400 pound target. This is why I started at 2400 instead of 2000. This will of course include insulation.