Photo: Renault
Renault has yet to reveal the all-new Alpine sports car, but it continues its teasing campaign.
The French corporation has announced that the upcoming Alpine model will get some pretty advanced aerodynamic solutions. Alpine’s engineers are so confident of their work that they say the new sports car does not even need a rear spoiler.
Evidently, this has also brought the applause of the design team, which got more liberty in the rear of the vehicle to apply a sleek and fluid upper body shape.
At this point, you might think that someone at Alpine has sold his or her soul to the Devil to enable them to design a car with proper downforce without a rear wing, but it is all science, and no black magic was involved.
As Alpine representatives have explained in a brief press release, the new sports car employs a flat floor and a rear diffuser. The conjunction of the two elements brings “significant downforce,” which ensures excellent stability. The latter also has to do with the suspension of a car, but downforce matters at high speeds.
Renault is no stranger to flat floors or rear diffusers, as its branch in Dieppe has offered several models with these features. The first one of them was the Renault Clio II RS 182, which came in 2004 with a flat floor instead of its spare wheel well.
The idea of a flat floor was continued on its successors in various forms, and an air diffuser was also included on the third-generation of the subcompact hot hatch.
Flat undersides have been around since the 1970s, when Formula 1 car designers had been studying the phenomenon of ground effect for over a decade. The high speeds involved in F1 led to implementing flat undersides as essential equipment for the top tier of motorsport because they improved the stability of the lightweight racing models.
Evidently, this has also brought the applause of the design team, which got more liberty in the rear of the vehicle to apply a sleek and fluid upper body shape.
At this point, you might think that someone at Alpine has sold his or her soul to the Devil to enable them to design a car with proper downforce without a rear wing, but it is all science, and no black magic was involved.
As Alpine representatives have explained in a brief press release, the new sports car employs a flat floor and a rear diffuser. The conjunction of the two elements brings “significant downforce,” which ensures excellent stability. The latter also has to do with the suspension of a car, but downforce matters at high speeds.
Renault is no stranger to flat floors or rear diffusers, as its branch in Dieppe has offered several models with these features. The first one of them was the Renault Clio II RS 182, which came in 2004 with a flat floor instead of its spare wheel well.
The idea of a flat floor was continued on its successors in various forms, and an air diffuser was also included on the third-generation of the subcompact hot hatch.
Flat undersides have been around since the 1970s, when Formula 1 car designers had been studying the phenomenon of ground effect for over a decade. The high speeds involved in F1 led to implementing flat undersides as essential equipment for the top tier of motorsport because they improved the stability of the lightweight racing models.
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