A Five Year Journey; Changes Afoot

I started this website five years ago, with the aim of expanding my personal knowledge of motorsports aerodynamics, and conveying that to others in a non-technical way. At the time I was mostly concerned with filling gaps in the Miata knowledge base and making vanity posts about endurance racing, but the site has grown to be more about aerodynamics and DIY projects in general.

If you have been following my blog for more than a minute, you figured out that I’m not a professional aerodynamicist. I regularly drop Fuck bombs, I threaten my readers with dick punches, and I neither work for, nor show allegiance to, any manufacturer.

I write for the joy of it, and to blow off steam from my day job, which is also technical writing, but boring stuff I leave at work. Aerodynamics is a passion project, a side gig, and like a lot of modern media, created by an enthusiastic amateur, rather than a professional.

I feel like my role in this industry is the narrow middle-ground between math-heavy SAE papers and bromance novels. I try to mix data with humor, and be entertaining. I’m sure that this comes at the expense of being truly accurate. I also don’t have the education or patience to achieve that level of excellence.

As such, I don’t pretend to know all the answers. Honestly, sometimes I don’t even know the fundamentals! So I offer ideas and conjecture when I’m uncertain. I absolutely make mistakes, and when people comment on them, I do my best to correct them.

In a game where most players keep their cards close to their chest, I’m playing with an open hand. By openly documenting my ideas and DIY projects, I share my successes and failures so others can learn from that. By openly providing data, I give other people the means to unfuck whatever errors I make. This is all about expanding knowledge, and five years on, this is still true.

In the end, we live in a world full of too many thinkers, talkers, and shit talkers. The world doesn’t have enough doers. And because of that, I’m going to keep experimenting with, and writing about, aerodynamics. As a result, I’ll continue to move quickly and fail often, so if you find errors, I beseech you to make comments so that I can correct them. Sniping from a distance is cowardly and helps nobody.

Of the future mistakes I’ll be making, I’m really excited about my Rosetta Stone Project. The concept is a single source that translates between three ways of testing that often give different results: CFD, wind tunnel, and track testing. For the “stone” I’ll be using the the ubiquitous Miata (with 9 Lives medium aero kit). By getting data from all three areas and comparing them on the same “stone,” I hope to refine the existing CFD model, as well as fill gaps in wind tunnel data (errors from the boundary layer and wheels that don’t spin). In turn, the track testing data from steady state and coast down testing should help refine the drag and downforce numbers. This is a big project, maybe not entirely achievable, but I dream big.

And of course there’s all the mistakes, financial and otherwise, that I’ll make swapping a motorcycle engine into my 94 Miata race car. Expect quite a few articles on Falconet, and a lot of tears as I cut new teeth. But if it works out like I imagine, it’s going to raise some eyebrows, set a new benchmark for DIY aero, and smash a few lap records.

Both cars will be tested in the A2 wind tunnel, and both AJ Hartman and Johnny Cichowski will accompany me. I won’t shill for a manufacturer, my role is more of a canary in the coal mine, so I tend to ruffle feathers. It will be interesting to see how we fly together. (That’s definitely enough bird analogies already, but maybe I’ll get someone to take video and see who is the first one to take a peck at the other.)

My Veloster N may or may not make another trip to the wind tunnel. While I have some aero parts still to refine, there’s just no market for a car with such low production numbers. But I will be offering canards for sale after I modify the design some more. I also want to make a wicker/kicker that turns the OEM wing into something more performant. Or make an active aero spoiler. These are Veloster N specific parts for the few; I don’t see myself making generic parts or wading into the aftermarket pool anytime soon.

As I reflect on this last 5 years, I’ve been largely a one-man band, the only elf in the shop, a lone wolf, etc. As much as my intentions are to benefit the entire community, I’ve done fuck-all to engage with any of you. As I kick off this next chapter, I’m going to start a new series of articles starring YOU! I want to hear what my readers are working on, and how your passion for aerodynamics has literally shaped your car. This has me more excited than either of the projects above, and so thank you ahead of time for anyone who will participate. See this page to submit your information. And if you have an idea for a guest post on any subject, contact me and let’s publish that shiz.

And with all that said about the past and future of this site, let’s keep playing this game of DIY aerodynamics. With our cards played openly on the table, and with data, of course.