So cool! Love to see it sometime in action. What cam are you using, and do you plan on triple Webers still? In my ancient memory, I would think of a Schrick 328 or something similar as a full on cam.
Any thoughts on aero? I tracked my Bavaria from 1980-1990, and in the early 80s was in grad school specializing in heat transfer and fluid dynamics and doing aero research for NASA for my thesis. So for a while in the early 80s I did a lot of thinking, analysis and experimentation with the aerodynamics of the E3 including in-motion tuft analysis to try to understand how to improve its barn door drag (Cd well north of 0.40, seem to recall ~0.48 quoted someplace). Since the power required to overcome aerodynamic drag varies with the cube of velocity, I could just feel this thing turn into a slug on the back straight at Road Atlanta as speeds climbed over 100mph (had a Korman built M30, triple Webers, etc, in the car so a good bit more power than stock). A full front airdam worked wonders up front as the underside of an E3 is extremely dirty from an aero point of view, so redirecting flow around the car is helpful. However, there is a humongous wake off the rear, with of course boundary layer separation at the rear edge of the roof, and a huge recirculating vortex behind the rear window and above the trunk (airflow at the surface is going forward in the middle of the trunk along the centerline).
My test track was the old layout Road Atlanta where I went to numerous track events (no such thing as an "HPDE" yet back then) and evaluated peak speeds reached at the end of the back straight right at the braking point going uphill toward the bridge (I purposely exited turn 7 at 30mph indicated and hit the throttle at the same track out point in a crude attempt to create a repeatable starting condition). That front airdam gained about 3mph by itself. I later modified it with longer sides and a splitter out in front of it but never got back to RA to test it having moved to near Summit Point by then. Anyway, I never got to working on the rear aero of the car as my new job, kids, etc, absorbed extra time plus I was never sure if I wanted to drill/modify the body and trunk lid. I wanted to try the E9 CSL rear window deflector (or a modified/adapted version of it) as it attempts to keep flow attached longer over that transition from the roof to the rear window and should reduce the size of that centerline recirculating vortex. The E3 rear window angle is very abrupt however, so I was pondering this situation a lot. Something like the E30 M3 rear window treatment would be better to lower the angle most likely. Anything that can reduce the size and intensity of that centerline trailing vortex...
So my final rear aero plan was to use a CSL type rear window deflector (tall enough to capture most all the boundary layer at the rear of the roof before it separates) and a fairly large traditional spoiler at the rear of trunk...shooting for a length ~8" and an angle in the 30-40 degree range. I still have that image in my head...wish I had made it happen!
I still have pictures of the tuft analysis I took with a friend driving the Bavaria down the interstate while my wife drove the chase car while I hung out the window taking pictures.
Regards,
Chuck
