Square Go SQ-15(KVRC)

[SquareGo]

Hello everyone. This is my first post and my first time entering the Khamsin Virtual Race Car Challenge. A bit about myself. My name is Ruairidh and I'm a former architecture student from Scotland. I have been interested in motorsport since 1998 and my racing heroes are David Coulthard and Kamui Kobayashi. I normally design fantasy race tracks but after finding this challenge I have decided to give race cars a go.

The philosophy behind the SQ-15 is to try and keep things simple while trying ideas that i've had and improving my CAD skills. The aim is to not finish last as I don't have any experience and only have armchair knowledge of aerodynamics. This probably won't be the final version before the first race as i've yet to use CFD on the car.

[CAEdevice]

Welcome Ruairidh!

Your car has good aspect, but there are two things that that you would have better to check.
1) Diffuser: try to use alle the width allowed by the rules (your design is LMP1 compliant, but KVRC is only LMP1 inpried)
2) Rear wing: the big curvature can be interesting to develop, but maybe not so much big

[variante]

Welcome!

First of all, your car looks kind of fascinating to me...so, well done!

As for a technical point of view:
i agree with CAEdevice...the diffuser is the area you should focus on the most in these last days of development: just try to maximize it.
A curved rear wing is a solution we've seen on many cars, but for different purposes than yours (i guess): unless it's very well studied, that wing wing it's not going to help you, performance wise. Also, you might want to revise the overlaps of the airfoils (you can earn quite a lot from a smart overlap!)
The canopy, especially at the front, should be much more "gentle" driving the airflows to the rear wing.

The general concept you've used is going to help you on those tracks where drag reduction and efficiency are tyrants; you will score good point there.

Looking forward to see your final version!

[machin]

Indeed, excellent to see a new competitor to the KVRC.

Your car looks very nicely modelled and I will be very interested to see how you develop it over the championship.

In addition to the comments above by the other guys; one thing I have noticed on the previous two designs from CAEdevice and Variante is that they have been really ruthless with the sizing of the side-pods (in accordance with the rules no doubt), whereas your design looks much more "conventional" in this area: directing all the air from the front of the car out behind the front wheels....

But as I say, it looks like an excellent starting basis!

[MadMatt]

As its been written, you've limited yourself too much with LMP1-like regulations! It looks like a good basis indeed, but I think you have a lot to gain by getting the most out of the rules (diffuser width and height, cooling intake surface, etc.). I am not sure about the curved rear wing, did you try with a standard flat one?

[SquareGo]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. After having a look at everyone else's entries, which all look brilliant, I decided to try and make some improvements before I put the car into CFD. The main improvements are a larger front wings and additional elements, bargeboards, large tail fin and a wider diffuser. This will probably be my last update before the first race unless there is a mistake and it doesn't fit within the rules.

[SquareGo]

After missing the first race due to forgetting when the deadline was, the SQ-15 has been upgraded in preparation for Monaco. The biggest change is the new cockpit which is smaller and more aerodynamic. This also allow for a larger rear fin and is now incorporated into the new rear wing.

[machin]

I did wonder where your car was...

What is the theory behind the low rear wing... I presume in an attempt to drive the diffuser...?