Canterbury Unversity has released promising first results from the CFD analysis they are undertaking. The very first drag results were too good to be true but some detective work has uncovered the problem and analysis has continued. The first simulation was performed at 150m/s or 540km/h.
We are trying to find what is called the Coefficient of Drag. In simple terms this means 'how much aerodynamic drag does the car have'. The details and science behind the numbers are not so relevant here and its easier to understand with some comparisons. Thrust 2 has a drag of around 0.3. The Blue Flame (pictured below) has a drag of around 0.1 .
Our initial drag results came in at around 0.1076. This was too good to be true so we looked at what could have caused this. The problem was found and the simulation run again. The current drag figures are in the 0.22 region and the Team at Canterbury University are currently working to check these results. This result would be very pleasing as it represents a significantly better aerodynamic performance than Thrust 2.
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