Originally posted by John Bucknell:
Z's got the right idea. A few years ago Road & Track (I think) ran a skidpad challege, and the Bowlands showed up (Todd went to VT around 1991 and they build their FSAE chassis to be a sucker until Cornell got it outlawed
http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif) with their tube frame autocross terror (big wings) and two leaf blowers hooked up to a sucker system. Ended up riding on the jounce bumpers
http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif I might have it in my archive somewhere. Their skirts were lexan 'flaps' I think that just dragged on the ground.
I'm designing a sucker car for my own enjoyment as well, and the research I've done says you need a huge planform area and relatively little leakage (10mm gap) to develop significant downforce on a 1000 kg car (ie 1g additional). Ends up having to move a lot of air, and I think two-stage axial flow fans will actually do a better job than a centrifugal (try the Multi-Wing Optimizer to size a fan, you can get it for free @
download ) for the flow rates you'll need. Of course, if you can get a better seal - then the flow rate goes down.