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Originally Posted by Porsche Guy  I was under the impression that venting was for heat dissipation purposes, not weight savings. Aerodynamics on a road car are basically useless with the exception of high performance purpose built sport cars, like the Ferrari Enzo or Carrera GT. While the M3 may be a great car, it's not a purpose built sports car. The M3 is just a 3 series coupe with uprated components, which itself is just designed to be a daily commuter (no matter what BMW tries to tell you). The underbody of this car is far from smooth (look at F1 cars and supercars like the Enzo, SLR and Carrera GT, they have smooth underbodies) so air traveling to the diffuser at the back of the M3 is so disrupted, the diffuser is useless. The diffuser is more for looks than anything else. |
Venting isn't always for heat dissipation, sometimes it's to direct airflow within without disrupting outer airflow, look at NASCAR. As for the M3 not needing the diffuser like the Enzo, SLR and CGT. You couldn't be dead wrong. Aerodynamics come into effect at as low speeds as 85mph if not lower but they get into prime at 120mph. BMW never said that this was a supercar but it definitely is a performance car. I've worked on my M3 and I the undercarriage was surprisingly smooth. Honestly, you weren't expecting F1 tech in a 50k car were you? F1 is purely designed with performance in mind whilst this is designed with day-to-day functionality and performance in mind. I've done 155 in my m3 quite a bit of times and how many time I've gone over 120 mph I can't even count. Saying that a diffuser is useless is saying that R or ZR rated tires are useless as well. All of this depends on the driver. I for myself am glad that these cars come with ZR/R rated tires as well as the ///M team invests heavily in Aerodynamics. Just because this car isn't a supercar doesn't mean it doesn't need the right amount of aerodynamic downforce and etc, etc.