Talk:Ground effect (cars)

Section "Theory"
The "Theory" segment of this article is not convincing at all. I'm not an expert in this field, but it desperately needs attention from an expert. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.165.86.23 (talk) 03:43, 30 September 2012 (UTC)

Merge in of Porpoising
I am proposing that the article Porpoising should be merged into this article.

That article has been recently changed from a redirect into a fairly well written but completely unreferenced stub. I believe that it would be more appropriate as a section within this article. Neither article is currently long enough and I believe that there is inadequate potential for both to reach Good Article status as separate articles. --Athol Mullen 06:01, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Merge in of Porpoising
Porpoising originally redirected to porpoise, which obviously isn't what the people looking for porpoising would want to read about... I wrote the article to remove this anomally, but I can see there's a good case for merging it with Ground effect in cars. Spiderlounge 12:17, 29 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Done. The article could do with breaking up with a few more headings and copyediting and the section that you added really does need referencing but it's now all in the one article. --Athol Mullen 12:36, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Definitely NOT!!!

GE was a seperate technology and deserves to be remember that way!!

There is a lot in GE which overlaps and much more that doesn't —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.9.0.241 (talk) 13:03, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

Suggested merge with Diffuser (automotive)
Someone has suggested a merge between Ground effect in cars and Diffuser (automotive). Seems like a fairly good match: The former is mostly a historical piece on the history of ground effect in racing cars, with a short section on the technical problem of porpoising. The latter is a more technical piece on underbody aerodynamics in road cars. The two could probably be merged into one article (Automotive underbody aerodynamics?) with the following structure:
 * Lead
 * History of underbody aerodynamics
 * Origins in racing
 * Application in road cars
 * Aerodynamics
 * Bernoulli's equation
 * Ground effect
 * Applications/Technology
 * Racing
 * Venturi tunnels
 * Porpoising
 * Flat bottom/diffuser
 * Active suspension
 * Exhaust blown diffuser
 * Road cars
 * I have to admit I don't pay much attention to this!

Alternatively, you could split the racing and road car applications from each other - I don't believe road cars make much genuine use of ground effect, other than possibly some of the supercars.

Other views? 4u1e 09:11, 8 October 2007 (UTC)


 * The Diffuser (automotive) article is in my opinion extremely sloppy, as the author, in my opinion, does not as far as I can see understand the subject well enough (for example the "front diffuser" referred to is actually called a splitter, a genuine front diffuser is something else entirely), and the article is filled with more photos than is necessary. So before merging the articles the diffuser side would need some pretty comprehensive redrafting. Spiderlounge 10:19, 9 October 2007 (UTC)
 * That's partly why I suggested underbody aerodynamics, rather than ground effect. I agree there are too many pictures, and my eyes started to cross when I read the 'front diffuser' bit. I suppose the basic question is (ignoring the quality of either article): Do we need two separate articles for this? 4u1e 09:12, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

I have a problem with oth articles as I find considerable error in fact and a merged article with a well wrttten article could correct those errors —Preceding unsigned comment added by GeorgeTheCar (talk • contribs) 22:46, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm with the above signer. You can't just mash the two together, you really need to rewrite them. For example, diffuser is very important to ground effects and porpoising (which only occurs in certain vehicles) is not. Something that brings together splitters, diffusers, fan cars and the problems (including the flipping cars at Le Mans in the Mercedes CLR years and this year) and tradeoffs versus downforce or just plain weight.Bollinger (talk) 07:10, 20 June 2008 (UTC)
 * As a passing comment, porpoising probably isn't that important, but the issue of the centre of pressure moving around as the car's attitude changed was not understood in the early days, and did cause some significant problems. I vote for a sort of merge/rewrite. Is anyone volunteering to do it? :)4u1e (talk) 16:11, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

Ground effect is the more broad ranging term to discuss the interplay between the car, ground plane and various aerodynamic effects. The "diffuser" is one element of the ground effects design kit and the "centre of pressure" is one key concern but both are subsets of the discussion.

GeorgeTheCar (talk) 19:38, 6 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Agreed. 4u1e (talk) 07:19, 7 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Oppose merger. Plumpurple (talk) 02:25, 23 November 2008 (UTC)