5th Earth

That would add weight. And we can't allow that.

Saw this a little while ago on Jalopnik. Here's the really **** up part: it's never been legal to alter the emissions controls on a production car. IANAL, but I dug through the relevant legislation and the EPA is right when they say this is a "clarification" and not a new rule. Title 40, as it has always been written, explicitly prohibits what we and all the parts makers have been doing for decades. It's not obvious, and its not easy to understand, but it's true. It's just that for some reason they only just now have decided to say, "oh BTW, y'all are breaking the law." Of course, if they had, you know, SAID something at some point, the rules could have been changed. Instead, they let us all just cruise along thinking we were okay, and then dropped a bombshell on an entire industry. Okay, it's our fault for not knowing the law, but we can hardly be blamed given the historic zero-enforcement policy and obscurity of the rules.

A very respectable performance all around! Keeping up with a Viper ACR is no mean feat. I bet a lot of the other racers wished they had AWD like you... Re: the windshield fogging, a product like this might help: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Rain-X-Anti-Fog-3.5oz-Bottle/16889024 (Edit: except maybe not that one specifically, it has crap reviews.)

Well, I'm mostly all theory. I like to read about strange and innovative cars, like what they had in the Can-am series and 60's-70's F1, and I used to play a lot of Live for Speed, a racing sim which will teach you a lot about suspension and differential tuning. For more generally illegal but effective aerodynamic ideas, see the Lotus 88 or the Chaparral 2J.

If you're going to get that complicated, you should go the Chapparal route and attach the wing to the unsprung suspension members. That way it applies downforce directly to the wheels, bypassing the shocks and springs, and you don't have to compromise on your spring rates to get good handling at all speeds. Of course, doing this became universally illegal about 5 minutes after it was invented.

You joke, but this is how the "Fabulous Flog" formula drift BRZ does it, minus the whistle and flap. Granted, they are running an 8 liter V8 so their wastegate output is more than most people's entire exhaust. Incredibly detailed article on the build here: http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticles/ID/3617/The-Fabulous-Flog-A-Look-Inside-Dai-Yoshiharas-Falken-Tire-Subaru-BRZ.aspx Re: the wing, I'm not a fluid mechamic, but I think the current location might have some disadvantages over a more rearward position. The wing makes a low-pressure zone underneath and behind it, which may tend to cause lift over the large expanse of roof behind it. Not enough to offset the downforce gains, but you may be losing some efficiency there. Shifting it back might reduce this, and if you can push the low pressure zone off the end of the roof, you can use it to help drive a diffuser if/when you install one. Of course aerodynamics is a black art to those of us without wind tunnels and CFD software, so I might be totally wrong.