Set-up day at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 has provided an opportunity to compare the new and old rear wings for the Ford Mustang.
Ford teams had lobbied for parity changes ahead of the Repco Bathurst 1000 and, while they were unsuccessful then, the parity trigger point was reached at the Great Race and hence the new aerodynamic package was approved in recent days.
While the Mustangs arrived on the Glitter Strip sporting most of the new parts, which had already been made in case they were given the go-ahead for Bathurst, some squads were fitting the new, wider rear wing in the Surfers Paradise pits.
Said wing is among six changes to the Mustang’s aero package, with the full list provided by Ford as follows:
- Front Fascia ‘packer’ to reduce depth of lower ‘fog light’ bezels
- ‘Wheelband’ insert ahead of front wheel
- Side skirt trailing edge addition
- Rear wingspan: +100mm
- Rear wing position: up 25mm, back 25mm
- Rear wing maximum angle: 7 degrees
As part of what is the third aero spec for the Mustang this season, the rear wing has been moved back to its original, pre-Townsville position, and hence teams have reverted to their old mounts.
As for the wing itself, it was been widened by way of a 50mm extension attached to the endplates (pictured above), which is fitted to the element with longer bolts.
According to Ford, the new package has “resulted in a front downforce reduction, minor rear downforce increase, total downforce reduction, and a drag reduction,” and hence downforce balance has been shifted backwards.
Perry Kapper, Chief Engineer at Blue Oval homologation team Dick Johnson Racing, outlined the process in this week’s Speedcafe Podcast, and how a competitive package also has to preserve the look of the roadgoing Mustang.
“Obviously, a deficit or a target has to be established, so, something to work towards,” he said.
“We then go away, in conjunction with Ford Performance, and we work using CFD to iteratively design changes to the car.
“So, the parts that you see on the car are fourth and fifth versions at the front of the car, so they’re not the first version.
“So, the multiple versions are trialled to understand what is going to work and achieve the targets that we’re setting out to achieve, but it’s a very in-depth process, and we’re very lucky to have the tie-up with Ford Performance.
“They’ve been extremely helpful and it’s fair to say we wouldn’t be able to do it without them.
“That resource allows us to work away, understand where the difference lies, and then come up with a design – that needs to meet styling requirements, too, I might add.
“That then goes into track testing, and we validate different versions of those.
“So, we might take to the track two or three different versions of those front items and then we work through, ultimately, seven or eight different combinations.
“That sounds like a lot, but they’re actually very small refinements of each particular item, and [then we] come to a package that we are happy with.”
Ford claims that it will still be on the wrong end of a disparity despite the latest changes, and all the more so because the proposed engine tweaks – which included hardware and software – were knocked back.
However, the package may well last just this weekend’s Gold Coast 500 and the season-ending Adelaide 500, with Supercars confirming off-season wind tunnel testing in the United States.
Practice 1 at Surfers Paradise starts tomorrow at 11:30 local time/12:30 AEDT.
GALLERY: News Ford Mustang aero
