Team Uberbird Hits the Road!

Tim Odell

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Those of you who suspected today’s Name That Part was LeMon-flavored were correct, and commenter “Tiller” was more correcter than most, as (s)he called it perfectly: “Der UberBird’s wing, shot from below”. Tonight we’re putting some more finishing touches on our be-winged and be-noseconed steed, then hitting the road headed north. Hit the jump for more shots of the complete (minus paint) wing.
As for comments regarding weld quality, keep in mind this is 20ga sheet metal,which is the welding equivalent of an annoying shower temp knob: the line between too cold (booger welds) and too hot (burn though) is as thin as, well, 20ga sheet metal. That, and this is my first real foray into welding sheet metal; the better looking welds came later in the process. Lastly: it’s LeMons.
We’ll be on the road tomorrow, hitting the track on Friday for inspection and a oh crap what just broke practice day. The good news is Saturday and Sunday are supposed to be mid-50s and clear. The bad news is Friday it’ll be mid-40s and raining.
Thunderhill has wifi, so we’ll do our best to keep the posts coming as things progress. Then again with might be too busy fixing some stupid over-engineered German part racing to hit the keyboard.
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Tim Odell

Tim Odell

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  1. PowerTryp Avatar
    PowerTryp

    Hey is it just me or did you guys not give enough forward angle to actually create down force?
    Upon further inspection it seems like you've given a bit of an aileron effect to the back end but it's less effective than tilting the entire wing surface. Engineerd could probably elaborate on downforce/drag coefficents better than I could.
    What am I doing? Nit-picking on a LeMons car?

    Reply
    1. smalleyxb122 Avatar
      smalleyxb122

      Since we're nitpicking, I think the word you were looking for was "aerofoil" or "airfoil". An aileron is a control surface, and is, in fact, tilted into the flow to accomplish a pressure differential. An airfoil speeds up the flow over the bottom surface, thereby creating a low pressure area to accomplish downforce with minimal drag. While canting the entire surface will generate more downforce, it will also generate copious amounts of drag.
      I think that for LeMons, neutral lift would probably be sufficient, and any additional downforce without undue drag is just a bonus.

      Reply
      1. PowerTryp Avatar
        PowerTryp

        Thank's for the correction.
        I won't deny that the airfoil does work but on a wing that big, drag would become less of an issue compared to a fairly small wing with a small surface area.

        Reply
    2. Tim Odell Avatar
      Tim Odell

      While not an Aerospace engineer in real life (I'm biomedical,hence the handle), I'm actually pretty proud of the engineering that went into this (but no so much the craftsmanship).
      The base is either 3/16" or 1/4" steel plates bolted to the trunk lid, in a way that ties into the structural ribbed parts of the hinges.
      Welded to that is 13" of 1/4 steel L-bracket.
      Bolted to that, forming the skeleton of the wings is 2.5" x 1" aluminum C-channel: light and stiff. 2 sheets of 20ga wrap around this and are screwed in place.
      The "wing" itself is 2 pieces of 20ga, bent over my welding gas bottle, then welded on. It's got angle-of-attack to it and some curvature in hopes of at least not generating lift.
      Aside from the base-plates the whole thing probably weighs less than 20 lbs.
      My biggest fear is side-to-side resonant vibrations at speed.

      Reply
    3. Jeff Glucker Avatar
      Jeff Glucker

      as long as it doesnt rip off the back of the car, or somehow cause us to spin… we are doing good.

      Reply
      1. PowerTryp Avatar
        PowerTryp

        Well if you guys did manage to get the amount of downforce correct then you should be fine, if you have upforce then be prepared to spin and if you created too much downforce then understeer will be your fight.
        I wish you the best of luck guys, dispite my nit-picking it looks awesome and will provide an ultimate hoon.

        Reply
        1. JeepyJayhawk Avatar
          JeepyJayhawk

          Wouldn't they have to get over 100mph to make any force at all?

          Reply
          1. PowerTryp Avatar
            PowerTryp

            No it's a matter of airspeed vs surface area, something small like that could actually create minimal downforce at about 20mph but probably not enough to bother with on a car like that, but LeMons is racing so the speeds should be increased dramatically (especially if theres a long straight).
            Mad_Science looks to have it under control now that I read his reply lower down.

          2. Jeff Glucker Avatar
            Jeff Glucker

            Thunderhill with NO chicanes… this may be the fastest LeMons race yet.

          3. JeepyJayhawk Avatar
            JeepyJayhawk

            Wow, can't wait to see the race footage.

  2. Deartháir Avatar
    Deartháir

    Where are the photos of the Hooniverse decals, dammit?

    Reply
    1. Jeff Glucker Avatar
      Jeff Glucker

      you aska for dem…. you getta dem
      <img>” target=”_blank”>http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u195/jglucker/LeMons002.jpg

      Reply
      1. JeepyJayhawk Avatar
        JeepyJayhawk

        I need to get some of those decals!

        Reply
      2. om_nom_de_plume Avatar
        om_nom_de_plume

        WHOA! My logo is everywhere!!
        WOO HOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
        Seriously wish I could make the trip down, stupid layoffs and broke-ness… ARG!

        Reply
    2. Tim Odell Avatar
      Tim Odell

      We'll throw up some shots when it's actually fully done (which will be like 5 minutes before tech on Friday…

      Reply
  3. PowerTryp Avatar
    PowerTryp

    Ok that clears it up, I was going from your pictures there and it looked to me as if the front portion of the wing sat higher than the rear.

    Reply
  4. LTDScott Avatar
    LTDScott

    Wishing I could join you guys up there 🙁 I actually have the weekend free, but I can't take any time off work now it's too long of a drive and too expensive of a flight to make it worth it. Oh well. Hope you guys do better than last time!

    Reply
  5. JeepyJayhawk Avatar
    JeepyJayhawk

    Hopefully you can bribe the judges into a few bonus laps.

    Reply