Comments on: Carnival of Wheels: Edition #53 http://thegarageblog.com/garage/carnival-of-wheels-edition-53/ The Garage: Your daily dose of automotive news, reviews and motorsports coverage Sat, 20 Mar 2010 07:01:42 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Gary Faules http://thegarageblog.com/garage/carnival-of-wheels-edition-53/comment-page-1/#comment-33640 Gary Faules Sun, 06 Jan 2008 23:33:21 +0000 http://thegarageblog.com/garage/carnival-of-wheels-edition-53/#comment-33640 Regarding Jeff's post on scoops over at DrivingEnthusiast I must admit I was a bit surprised as to several incorrect comments. I will agree that some fake scoops seem to be overwhelming but in the same breath I do understand several reasons why they are present. For years racing organizations have disallowed modifications to certain body styles on cars "unless" those styles where present at time of manufacture. For that very reason, many "potentials" have been included to make a car more appealing to the crowds most likely to race them. Then there are some designs that are applied to cars as some sort of a historical tribute to what used to be. Shelby's being a very good example. Besides, what does a 50 year old baby-boomer that's planing on driving her car to the grocery store care about "real" performance issues? The first thing I found to be inaccurate was the comment, "Why aren't hood scoops functional anymore? Because we don't have carburetors...." I am not sure why Jeff wouldn't realize "fresh" air or "cooler" air is as important to a FI motor as it is a carbureted motor. Fresh air is even more important to helping cool a performance engine and every racer understands the old adage of heat is friction... friction is wear, thus any cooling is good cooling. As for Shelby scoops here are some more accurate facts. The roof vent scoops were not designed for cigarette smoke but in fact to help with removing air accumulating inside the car and introducing it as a layer of air over the rear of the car at speeds. This created what is known as a "Laminar flow" a principal that added an extra 5 horsepower to the car's top speed not to mention helping to stabilize body roll. This was originally designed in part by Peter Brock one of Shelby's top designers and Chief instructor at the Carroll Shelby Driving School. For drivers who have a good comprehension of what constitutes good hood scoop operation it's a well known fact that the majority of hood scoops work more efficiently when put on backwards thus creating "Cowl Induction." If you look closely at any Mustang ore Shelby many times you will notice two long oval holes cut in the firewall area that allows fresh/clean air to be inducted into the engine compartment via the opening in the cowl area. To the untrained eye these holes often go unnoticed. Example; http://bp0.blogger.com/_iBxAzFjPTxU/Rtjxa_QbZvI/AAAAAAAAAxM/WDWfoHZy4nU/s1600-h/IMG_1719.JPG To make the statement that the side scoops were not very functional in helping cool the rear brakes is partially wrong and besides those same vents were also and are still used by some drivers to help cool off the cabin of the car when supplemented with electric motors. If every scoop was in fact made to be functional and quantified the cost of many cars would be out the price range of many buyers. Simply because of those fake scoop and duct openings being there, drivers and racers alike now have "potential" performance enhancements made available to them. But then again, I think some hubcaps looked pretty cool too. Regarding Jeff’s post on scoops over at DrivingEnthusiast I must admit I was a bit surprised as to several incorrect comments. I will agree that some fake scoops seem to be overwhelming but in the same breath I do understand several reasons why they are present. For years racing organizations have disallowed modifications to certain body styles on cars “unless” those styles where present at time of manufacture. For that very reason, many “potentials” have been included to make a car more appealing to the crowds most likely to race them. Then there are some designs that are applied to cars as some sort of a historical tribute to what used to be. Shelby’s being a very good example. Besides, what does a 50 year old baby-boomer that’s planing on driving her car to the grocery store care about “real” performance issues?

The first thing I found to be inaccurate was the comment, “Why aren’t hood scoops functional anymore? Because we don’t have carburetors….” I am not sure why Jeff wouldn’t realize “fresh” air or “cooler” air is as important to a FI motor as it is a carbureted motor. Fresh air is even more important to helping cool a performance engine and every racer understands the old adage of heat is friction… friction is wear, thus any cooling is good cooling.

As for Shelby scoops here are some more accurate facts. The roof vent scoops were not designed for cigarette smoke but in fact to help with removing air accumulating inside the car and introducing it as a layer of air over the rear of the car at speeds. This created what is known as a “Laminar flow” a principal that added an extra 5 horsepower to the car’s top speed not to mention helping to stabilize body roll. This was originally designed in part by Peter Brock one of Shelby’s top designers and Chief instructor at the Carroll Shelby Driving School.

For drivers who have a good comprehension of what constitutes good hood scoop operation it’s a well known fact that the majority of hood scoops work more efficiently when put on backwards thus creating “Cowl Induction.” If you look closely at any Mustang ore Shelby many times you will notice two long oval holes cut in the firewall area that allows fresh/clean air to be inducted into the engine compartment via the opening in the cowl area. To the untrained eye these holes often go unnoticed. Example; http://bp0.blogger.com/_iBxAzFjPTxU/Rtjxa_QbZvI/AAAAAAAAAxM/WDWfoHZy4nU/s1600-h/IMG_1719.JPG

To make the statement that the side scoops were not very functional in helping cool the rear brakes is partially wrong and besides those same vents were also and are still used by some drivers to help cool off the cabin of the car when supplemented with electric motors.

If every scoop was in fact made to be functional and quantified the cost of many cars would be out the price range of many buyers. Simply because of those fake scoop and duct openings being there, drivers and racers alike now have “potential” performance enhancements made available to them.

But then again, I think some hubcaps looked pretty cool too.

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