Discussion
FWIG, these are being offered by a start up based out of Hong Kong.
The 1:64th scale wind tunnel is $130 + shipping on Kickstarter presale. Target release is later this year. I think the 1:64th scale tunnel appears to be pretty small which may prohibit testing our larger vehicles. Personally, I'm going to wait until they're ready for public release.
I wonder if it would have any real world applicability? I guess if everything else was dialed in 100%, maybe that could get you an extra 10 thousandth or so reduction in e.t. if you sanded or smoothed the body? It is a pretty cool "toy" and I'm all about that... might be interesting to see what effect your car might have on side by side drag runs and if there is any interference on the next lane over?
Thanks for sharing! You just never know what they will come up with next! lol
- Peak race speeds are 15-20 ft/sec?? Still a cool toy. — alva1370
- It could be useful as a pre-race tool for comparing your own entries. — GspeedR
- I don't see how it wouldn't be helpful...if you know what you're looking at, that is. But that price... — redlinederby
My dad sent me a link to this the other day. It looks like a cool toy but I doubt the practical applications. Would be cool to use that for an intro video for cars...
It screams classic "The Sharper Image" catalogue, undeniably cool in form! $130 for the 1/64 model, owwwwch, though.
Functional for us (well, for you, you guys build)? I've spoken to people in the hobby with physical sciences degrees and they say wind resistance at this scale is negligible and at the distances covered. Folks with years of drag racing under their belt insist cars behave differently "in traffic" as opposed to running solo. Build a drag track with an average time of twenty seconds or get a timer that will read seven places to the right of the decimal point and perhaps some utility can then be seen.
- I feel these diecast cars definitely run different in "traffic". Lots of people say they will run slower but I feel majority of time they seem to run faster. — Dutch_Clutch_Racing
- I'm certainly in no position to mount a solid argument either way, Dutch. Drafting effects at this scale would make for a peer-reviewed research paper I'd definitely read!! — Chris_Hood
- I miss Sharper Image — redlinederby
Actually an easy build
plexiglass tube, and an "overly modded vap pen" for the "smoke"
laminar elements (in front and after) made with plastic tube coffee stirrers
a shop vac for suction. (buffer pressure pulses with steel woll in the tube)
if you want to get tricky, take upstream/downstream differential pressure measurements.
(aerodynamics do scale)
dr
- Or use that plastic tube and create a vacuum inside of it to create a hyper race tunnel. Then you could see exactly how much effect air resistance has on the hot wheels. — AbbyNormal
Voxxer made a wind tunnel a few years back for his builds. The video is short but it looks like a 2-liter pop bottle around a track and then add wind...dunno. But what I do know is that Voxxer was/is a top drag racer so whatever he's doing must be work...
www.redlinederby.com/topic/voxxer-racing-wind-tunnel-testing/4586
Very, very cool toy, 2 thumbs up from me.