Aero

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GHIT 0209 Introduction to Aero with Nine Lives Racing’s Johnny Cichowski Part 1 of hopefully many

Will aerodynamics help your racing car?  We begin to explore the field of aerodynamics with Johnny Cichowski from Nine Lives Racing on this episode.  As an introductory episode, we start with the fundamentals and work our way towards laying out a plan for adding aero to a race car that will result in actually having a faster race car.  We started with the very basics of defining most of the basic individual components and then looked at the factors that affect the performance of the car and then moved on to covering the best approach to adding aero to your car and the best ways to test and dial in the performance and balance of the car.  We also thought it would be great to add Tom Suddard from Grass Roots Motorsports onto the episode with zero notice.  You have our apologies Tom.

In this issue of Dominating with Dawson, we start with our best intro lead in ever, but then we eventually get into our topic of ways to avoid coasting or lifting while on track.  Ben addresses not only the issue, but what leads to it starting and ways to break the habit.  Cold turkey.  Yes please, with a bit of tomato on sour bread please.

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A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/NineLivesRacing1

We hope you enjoy this episode!

PS 

Please don’t forget that if you are looking to add an Apex Pro to your driving telemetry system, don’t forget to use our discount code for all Apex Pro systems you will receive a free Windshield Suction Cup Mount for the system, a savings of $40.  Just enter the code “ghitlikesapex!” when you order.  They are a great system and truly invaluable in safely increasing your speed on track and/or autocross etc.  The recently released second generation systems and app increases the capability of the system greatly.

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training Podcast and Garage Heroes In Training racing team drivers

Highlights from this episode include:

1)  One of the things we like about Nine Lives Racing is their obsession with testing to optimize the design and make sure they design is optimized and effective.

2)  Wings, wings vs spoilers, wing mounting structures, end plates, air dams, splitters, canards/dive planes etc.  We cover what they are and what they do to make sure we are all on the same page to start before we get into the relative effectiveness and the various interactions between each.

3)  Did you ever wonder where to start adding aero to your car?  Or how to test to see if it helped?  We present several options that can be done before or at the track.  Rain may be your friend.

4)  If you don’t think aero can help, it has helped several cars with very low horsepower several seconds per lap, including some low power Miatas and one notable GRM VW Fox.  (not a typo for a Fox body Mustang)

5)  How does effective aero change the way a car behaves, wear on your tires, suspension/drive height, and how it feels to the driver.

6)  We also had a great discussion of the proper sequence to add aero to the car and how to decide what is needed and when. 

7)  Wing position vs wing mounting position vs wing mounting method and the relative effect of each.  Some things just don’t matter.

8)  Wings for a front wheel drive, up front, out back, both?

9)  Common issues, mistakes, and misconceptions related to aero additions.

10)  Pilot tubes?  Pitot tubes?  lol.

You can envy Johnny’s welds and wings on Instagram at:  @ninelivesjohnny or @ninelivesracing 

Nine Lives Racing:  https://9livesracing.com

Grassroots Motorsports:  https://grassrootsmotorsports.com

GRM’s Instagram:  https://instagram.com/grassroots_motorsports 

GHIT 0209 Introduction to Aero with Nine Lives Racing’s Johnny Cichowski Part 1 of hopefully many