I had posted the roof concept plans for the new roofs we will have done and available for Maggie Valley a couple weeks ago, and since had promised pictures of the finalized plug design. We will now be moving forward to perfecting the rough body work and begin production mold construction this week, as finally the weather has allowed us enough breaks to get in the high speed testing, confirming our desired deck angles etc. I can hardly wait to get finished product available on my demo so you can test drive for yourself. The Sling now sticks to the road like glue with the proper deck angles, not till about 80 mph does the wing (roof) start to go aerodynamically neutral enough to stop producing down thrust, but not enough to start producing lift, as of course this lift would be undesirable at high speeds lol. You can see the four inch bolts through the leading edge which we used to allow raising up of roof above its frame , shimming our way up as we went through all speed realms. Then to confirm our suspicions we got real high tech here ,I found about ten or fifteen pounds of down pressure being applied to my four finger tips when using them as those high tech shims , until such time as we would start exceeding 80 mph at which time the down force pinching my fingers would decrease by about 50% but not continue decreasing significantly as speed continued to increase . Which confirmed our design objectives , the roof must not be aerodynamically capable of generating lift at high speeds nor should it generate too much down thrust , simply lowering the leading edge would create a roof that continued to increase down thrust and consequently increasing drag as speeds picked up. Hence the design criteria of an almost aerodynamically neutral roof (wing), always generating some down force , but decreasing at high speeds so as not to create too much drag.
And this would have all been available to you a few days ago but I Just couldn't leave well enough alone ! the new roof look just begged for an aerodynamically correct windshield, and possibly a fully enclosed one, So I spent a few days plugging up a new windshield mounting base, an arched one, to significantly reduce the equivalent flat plate area. At ww.ssbodykits.com we're all about improving Slingshot aerodynamics by decreasing induced drag, thereby improving efficiencies.
Another benefit to one arched windshield base is it allows for any height or shape of poly carbonate to be cut, as it doesn't require cast or heat formed corners. Therefore the customer can choose his shape and desired height and we'll cut it for him ! And yes the windshields will be available separate from the need for a roof .
I could use some suggestions here as to what height above the dash pods to terminate a few different model windshields at ? I just read a todays post where @EjFord @misterz and @speshee were discussing new windshields, any suggestions ?
Also please remember, "rough bondo stage," and ignore those mahogany slabs on dash pods, the black marker lines indicate a small half inch base flange that will rest on the pods and be two sided taped to prevent vibration. And if you look closely that arch did start life as my factory blade windshield using its bottom one inch and mounting flanges.
