verus/trackspec hood vents

[AlbertD]

Cleaner her up and took some cell phone pictures. The verus side vents compliments the trackspec center vent very nicely in my opinion.

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[arionii_s550]

What

Cleaner her up and took some cell phone pictures. The verus side vents compliments the trackspec center vent very nicely in my opinion.

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Cleaner her up and took some cell phone pictures. The verus side vents compliments the trackspec center vent very nicely in my opinion.

What part number are those side vents the ones on the website have a different shape?

 

[AlbertD]

What

This was from my shopping cart. They have two versions, have to make sure to get the GT spec.

 

[arionii_s550]

T

This was from my shopping cart. They have two versions, have to make sure to get the GT spec.

thanks

 

[JohnD]

This was from my shopping cart. They have two versions, have to make sure to get the GT spec.

Looks great. Did you put the wicker on them? Doesn't look like it. The wicker is pretty important in making it work properly. They look pretty decent, think I'm going to dive in for a set to complement my Race Louvers center vent.

 

[AlbertD]

I’m making a custom set of wickers for all 3 vents. The ones that come with the side vents are fairly small. Going to build something a bit more aggressive to maximize extraction.

I agree with you in that they don’t seem to work well at speed without wickers.

 

[AlbertD]

If time allows... I intend to mount my gopro on the hood and shoot some before and after footage of the new custom wickers to show how effective they are at improving heat extraction. I plan to tape some yarn at various points across all the hood vents to capture airflow behavior.

My assumption with the little aerodynamic knowledge I know... is that by creating a vertical wall (wickers) right at the start of each hood vent, it would force the creation of a low pressure zone right above the vent (behind the wicker) thus allowing the higher pressure air within the engine bay somewhere to transition to. At speed, the air flowing over the hood causes a high pressure zone above the vents essentially trapping the engine bay air from escaping out. While the vents seem to be highly effective with the car at a stop (can visibly see the heat escaping), they don't seem to be dropping temps as much as I would have expected while the car is at speed on track.

If anyone has any insight as to the optimal vertical height the wicker should be to disrupt the airflow (and create a large enough low pressure zone) without going overboard, I am all ears. I plan to make the wickers with a vertical height of about 1/2 from the base of each hood vent.

 

[JohnD]

The wickers on my Race Louvers RT spec center vent are 22mm high. Each vane on that unit has a different height, size and angle, no two are exactly the same. They obviously put a lot of thought and testing into this unit judging by the way it is built. It is highly effective, my peak engine temps went from 247 down to 217 and I dropped 1.3 seconds a lap with just the addition of that unit, it did more to tame the understeer than anything else I've done yet. Your explanation of the function of the wickers is in line with what I understand is intended to happen. But I believe the varying angle, height and size of the vanes is also important.

The Race Louvers guy told me that the side vents are nowhere near as effective as the center vent is and don't expect a big bump from them. Regardless, I ordered a set of the Verus side vents today on the "every little bit helps" theory.

 

[AlbertD]

Just looked up that race louvers RT you mentioned and wow... wish I would have gone with that set instead of the trackspec. It is apparent they put a lot more time and effort researching/testing that piece. The reduced temps you saw and the increased down force generated is exactly what I am looking for. I was left a bit dissapointed with the trackspec offering.Hopefully these new wickers I build will help.

It makes sense that the side vents wouldn't be as effective as the center vent since I would imagine most of the high pressure buildup would be centered right after the radiator. I also had the same thought however that every little bit adds up and helps.

 

[JohnD]

"most of the high pressure buildup would be centered right after the radiator."

Yes, that's exactly what the Race Louvers guy told me. They are very specific with where it is mounted, has to be no more than 2" behind the back of the rad to be most effective.

 

[AlbertD]

@JohnD I'm curious... do you have an underside shot of that vent installed?

The trackspec vent is placed further back (bummer) than the race louvers and I suspect the reason may have been to position it within the area of the hood that would minimize compromising the structural integrity.

 

[JohnD]

@JohnD I'm curious... do you have an underside shot of that vent installed?

The trackspec vent is placed further back (bummer) than the race louvers and I suspect the reason may have been to position it within the area of the hood that would minimize compromising the structural integrity.

Here's a couple. I'm no artisan so it's rough underneath but on top it looks perfect. Not that hard to do I covered the entire front end with a well sealed tarp and didn't remove the hood from the car. I have the Verus side vents inbound and I think they are going to be more difficult since that area is not flat like the center section is. It doesn't seem to affect the structural rigidity of the hood at all, the previous fluttering that looked like the hood was going to fly right off is gone. I regularly see 145 mph on the back straight at Mosport and the thing is pretty solid.

I would have preferred to buy an entire 'glass/carbon hood but trying to get a thing that big shipped from US into Canada is just a nightmare and the cost/benefit of going that route just didn't make sense versus going this way.

 

[AlbertD]

Looks great. Thanks for sharing. Yeah, the verus side vents were a lot more involved compared to the center vent. There are multiple curved layers to the hood in those areas that make cutting a bit more difficult.

 

[AlbertD]

Finished building custom wickers for all 3 vents. I designed/built a mounting structure out of aluminum angle that bolts/rivets to the hood and then allows the ability to easily install/remove aluminum wickers of varying heights. I chose to start out testing 25mm tall wickers.

Performed a before and after test tuft test... the results were both surprising and better than expected. I am currently uploading videos, so once those are complete I will post them in this thread. For now I have still shots of before and after...

Still shots... (apprx 50mph)
(Before)

(After)

Video footage...
(Before)


(After)


Observations...
(Before)
Verus: It seems that the verus side vents function at about 50% at speed. The front half of the vanes seem to experience too much high pressure, therefore not allowing air to esape. The back half of the vanes seem to operate at speed, but not as good as they could with wickers. Overall I'm quite impressed with the verus side vents since they seem to work well at both low and high speeds even without the wickers. The trackspec on the other hand...

Trackspec: This vent didn't seem to function much at all at speed. The vent seems to be placed in a high pressure area not allowing much of any air to escape. I was quite dissapointed with it's performance and it kind of confirms my suspicion that it doesn't seem to work while moving. Now... it is entirely possible that the vent may work better when it is NOT accompanied with the verus side vents. The verus side vents could be an area of least resistance so air would escape through those before making it out of the center vent. With what I have learned, if I could get a redo I would have much rather bought the vent that JohnD has. I suspect this trackspec vent would have worked much better a few inches forward potentially placing it in a lower pressure zone.

(After - with custom wickers)
Verus: The front half of the side vents are now fully active. The back half vanes are also showing increased amount of flow (more vertical angle) at speed. These vents are now functionally optimally

Trackspec: Now the vent is showing activity. The front half of the vanes seem to show significantly more activity than the rear half. The velocity of the air coming out of the vent doesn't seem to match the side vents, but I am quite satisfied with the improvement. I may experiment with a taller wicker to see if that shows anymore improvement.

Overall, the custom wickers have proven to be a dramatic improvement to maximizing (or in some cases activating) heat extraction. I would highly recommend adding wickers to these vents for those wanting max functionality out of them.

 

[JohnD]

Interesting how much you are getting out of the side vents, that seems to be a lot better than I was told would happen. I have a set inbound, though it's stuck at the border for 5 days now, and will be interesting to see how they do. Probably not going to happen until next spring now though, last week of track days up here is upon us....

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