Printer Motor or VW??
 

Use printer motors on a gear reduction that would give torque. You should be able to achieve 50-60 lbs force to move a wing up and down. Control the motors on a 0-10V or 4-20ma board that will position the wing with a turn or partial turn of a button.

If that is too complicated, simply steal any VW or Audi, rib the sunfoor guts out and you have the motor, positional switch, and electronic control.

Buy a 964 with a retractable spoiler. Or one of the cool biplane/ducktail Turbo wings. Bam-movable aero.

Not the poor man's option, though :rolleyes:;)

Flieger,

You could do as I did with the V-Dub or the Audi; steal the 964! That is the poor man's route!

Reading the comment and thinking about it, I think the switch and motor setup is the best compromise.
If you forgot to push the switch on the straight the wing stay at the high downforce setup, big deal, you will be a tad slower on the straight.
Last night I was thinking about where to put the switch and the motor when watching the Olympic.
This morning the light flash up so to speak. The high beam flash switch will be perfect, it’s already install and at the right position and it’s a momentary switch you pull it, and then released it. I check the wiring diagram of the car and it will work, a diode will need to be added that when the relay latch the light don’t stay On.
If you don’t want the light to flash each time you bring the wing down you can install a switch or remove the 2 fuses for the light high beam. If you want an indicator of the wing position, you can use the normally open contact of the switch S1 or S2 to turn a light On. The motor suggestions are good, but position is still a big question?????

Question for Jack Olsen, with the way your wing is mounted on the upright, what displacement is required to move the wing from the high downforce position to the low one? Also what is the wing angle for both positions?
That will help trying to figure out the motor and the movement necessary.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1218900406.jpg

The problem with all of the switch and spring activated solutions are when you are going 150mph backwards from a spin and "Both feet in". Force activated i.e. accelerometer is the way to go.

I like the deadman switch idea but if you are going to all the trouble of actuating the thing it really seems to be a waste not to kick it way up for braking with raw drag.

BTW - Are there any race organization that will let you run this?

I think the KISS principle should apply for vehicle aerodynamics. The only vehicles that have active aero that come to mind is the aforementioned Veyron and all airplanes. I'll take it the McClaren F1 has one too. Even on the Veyon (AFAIK), the rear spoiler merely raises and lowers at speed; no fancy, smancy angular-attack. And there's a budget for something like this within the 1M price tag, wouldn't you think? Or maybe they're saving that for the 2009 MY Veyron Coupe Deluxe. :)

What vehicle budget category above applies to you? While a default mechanical system might be fairly reliable, there's a reason why race organizations prohibit moveable aero devices. They can move when their operating mechanisms break or malfunction. At racing speeds, an unexpected change in lift characteristic is something to avoid. A servo motor would be the correct type to use for accurate positioning, but I don't think my Epson ink jet motor with nylon/plastic, hen-teeth-sized gears is quite up to this task. We're also talking about more weight with motors, actuators, ECUs, sensors, electronics and mechanical linkage.

For a street vehicle, fine, but that depends on whether the anticipated vehicle speed will warrant such a device. And I agree with Jack. Not at an autocross. As an aside, I bet some aftermarket company already has such a system for a Honda Accord.

Sherwood

The Chapparal solution was smarter.

No motors/switches/servos to fail -- so no surprises if the system fails with the wing is in the passive position.

A simple and intuitive dead-man switch in the dummy clutch pedal (the cars were automatic).

And of course the wing pushed directly down on the hubs/wheels instead of having to go through the suspension and springs.

I saw it proved conclusively that all GT3 cup cars have active aero once... all you need is to be racing near a storm and have a 40mph gust of wind hit you head on... I literally watched the wing on the car in front of me lessen it's angle of attack... then fold itself off of the car entirely... we were doing about 160 or so, so the wing was doing like 200... needless to say he did not make it out of the braking zone, the car flew off track and spun, but didn't really got hurt. The funny part is the driver was cool until he realized what happened and then it freaked him out to no end.

Hey guys, re-reading the post on the 917s with active aero... if you had movable essentially these woudl be ailerons... tied to the suspension wouldn't the work in the exact opposite fashion of that the MIT guys were trying to do? If the point was to solve body roll.

alright... I wrote this nice long post and just had a friend confirm that NASCAR, INDY, and F1 all do it the way I was thinking... increase downforce on the inside tire, not the outside... maybe the first post was just confusing to read, but it sounded like the implication was they were tring to add downforce to the outside tire.