Has anyone calculated the frontal area of the rio5?
Kia Rio5 Frontal Área
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No. What are you planning for the front?
If the front of the car was in a 2D plane how many squared feet would there be?
Slight modifications to improve drag coefficient.No. What are you planning for the front?
The front of these cars is pretty small, so I doubt there is much that could be done. I'd be more interested in seeing some weight reduction done, because for how small these cars are, they are effin heavy at 2500lbs.
My personal opinion... trying to improve drag coefficient is a waste of time.
Manufacturers spend a lot of $$$ on talented, highly educated people who use powerful computers to figure this stuff out when designing the vehicle. And they end up choosing the best compromise, a balancing act between form vs function.
Instead, I'd have to agree with spongebob - you are way better of to just try and save weight.
Manufacturers spend a lot of $$$ on talented, highly educated people who use powerful computers to figure this stuff out when designing the vehicle. And they end up choosing the best compromise, a balancing act between form vs function.
Instead, I'd have to agree with spongebob - you are way better of to just try and save weight.
Doesn't mean you can't improve upon that effort. Just saying.
Little Kia has an overall aerodynamic shape; air flows over it and has nowhere to get caught up in. Small improvements to help air flow over the car and around it would be to close up the air dams or have them in a overlapping slat arrangement. The Kia does not have high power so there is no real need for massive air vents; thats purely decoration and nothing else.
What can be improved though is how air passes underneath the car. For cars other than high end GT/supercars are pretty useless at this. If you can clean up how air passes under the car you will get a better handling car; one that sucks itself to the road surface if you team it up with a rear and front diffuser. Not them stupid ones that are big enough to have their own area code but one that can channel air out behind the car. In general a rear diffuser with a 20degree incline on exit is what is used throughout motorsport.
Another way to increase downforce/better airflow is to change the stance of the car. Lower the front end a little bit more than the rear. A 20degree incline is a good reference to go from. What it does is it gives air less chance to get trapped underneath the car especially if you dont have an under-carriage spoiler.
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Weight reduction; a good place to start is the bonnet. That is one heavy body panel for such a little car. That thing has to be around the 30kg mark. Its something Veloster owners point out too; very heavy bonnet. My other car is Lancer and even its stock bonnet is not as heavy as the Kia's and the bonnets between the two are almost twice the size in the Lancer.
If one did want to go CF you can drop the weight to around 5kg just for the bonnet. Making CF parts is easy; its not hard. If you want it road legal you can always get it engineered. Front fenders can always be remade in CF if you do want to go down weight reduction too.
One area that I refuse to use CF in is doors. Not just myself but many car makers too refuse to do doors in CF. They keep these in steel or lightweight aluminum.
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Most of this stuff people wont do mainly for it being very expensive and other reason is you cant measure it on a dyno... Ive been there myself with my other car with the whole weight reduction thing; many fights with other owners over going the weight reduction path.
Although what works for Kia against Mitsubishi though is the Kia communities from what Ive seen are much more civil and supportive compared to the other.
What can be improved though is how air passes underneath the car. For cars other than high end GT/supercars are pretty useless at this. If you can clean up how air passes under the car you will get a better handling car; one that sucks itself to the road surface if you team it up with a rear and front diffuser. Not them stupid ones that are big enough to have their own area code but one that can channel air out behind the car. In general a rear diffuser with a 20degree incline on exit is what is used throughout motorsport.
Another way to increase downforce/better airflow is to change the stance of the car. Lower the front end a little bit more than the rear. A 20degree incline is a good reference to go from. What it does is it gives air less chance to get trapped underneath the car especially if you dont have an under-carriage spoiler.
---
Weight reduction; a good place to start is the bonnet. That is one heavy body panel for such a little car. That thing has to be around the 30kg mark. Its something Veloster owners point out too; very heavy bonnet. My other car is Lancer and even its stock bonnet is not as heavy as the Kia's and the bonnets between the two are almost twice the size in the Lancer.
If one did want to go CF you can drop the weight to around 5kg just for the bonnet. Making CF parts is easy; its not hard. If you want it road legal you can always get it engineered. Front fenders can always be remade in CF if you do want to go down weight reduction too.
One area that I refuse to use CF in is doors. Not just myself but many car makers too refuse to do doors in CF. They keep these in steel or lightweight aluminum.
---
Most of this stuff people wont do mainly for it being very expensive and other reason is you cant measure it on a dyno... Ive been there myself with my other car with the whole weight reduction thing; many fights with other owners over going the weight reduction path.
Although what works for Kia against Mitsubishi though is the Kia communities from what Ive seen are much more civil and supportive compared to the other.
Very informative post. Thank you very very much.
For anyone interested the frontal area of the rio5 is roughly 1.76 square meters or 18.94 square feet.
I dont think the money spent on these modifications would be worth it for fuel economy, however. As far as i know weight doesnt play a huge role in fuel economy and if you spend $500 for a CF hood, then that is $500 you dont have to spend on gas.
If you dont need the backseat, take it out. If you dont want the spare and jack, take them out. Remove the carpets. Remove things to save weight first. Get creative if you want. Dont NEED sunvisors, take them off. Dont NEED your stereo, remove it.
Not to mean there is no reason for trying. Engineering on your own is great fun and rewarding. I like the idea of underneath air flow. I believe a Toyota Prius has a pretty smooth and flat bottom and for a good reason.
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