Race Car Aerodynamics: Designing for Speed

Race Car Aerodynamics: Designing for Speed (Engineering and Performance) is an excellent example of a dry technical volume.  It’s bristling with information about all possible topics regarding race car aerodynamics.  Each page contained dense information that takes time and thought to digest.  Unfortunately, I was overfull after finishing it.  I was given too much information about topics that simply don’t matter to me, such as specific race classes that limit the amount of downforce available or techniques that cannot be utilized on road cars.

I now have a firm grasp on the concepts and fundamentals of how aerodynamics affect vehicles because of this book.

As a reference for daily driven cars, it’s not nearly as useful because  too much of the information provided cannot be applied to daily driven cars.  Pages are dedicated to explaining how to bypass limitations imposed on specific classes of racecars, and many of the diagrams and formulas are useless on public roads.  Some of the techniques and principles explained are not even recommended on race tracks, because variables as small as a bent front lip  could have fatal consequences at speed.  I wish the book covered efficiency and tuning for improving aerodynamic efficiency at speed rather than only seeing drag as resistance to acceleration.  To sum up my complaints:

I know far more than I need to about front-mounted wings and undercarriage regulations than I need to.

I would certainly recommend this book as a primer for aerodynamic tuning of your street car.  Although some portions of the book can be ignored, it does explain the basic principles extremely well and establishes a firm basis of knowledge for your own fabrication efforts.  In this case, you should judge a book by its cover: this is an aerodynamic manual specifically geared toward track cars.