Downforce is basically a force that manipulates the wind to keep your car down. Downforce is created when parts like spoilers are attached to a car. A spoiler creates downforce consistently by slowing the airflow ahead of it. Parts like airfoils and wings are also used to create more downforce. With some cars, downforce is already included in the design of the car. Because of this, you don’t always have to get a spoiler in order to produce downforce.
Downforce also has some disadvantages. Even though downforce allows your car to be safer, it can also cause your car to be slower. It allows your car to go fast without flying into the air. More downforce will cause more drag. A lot of drag will make you go slower on straight paths. Downforce is not normally on a car like a Honda, because they can’t go extremely fast, but it will be on a supercar, because those cars can reach a really fast speed. Even though there are disadvantages to having downforce on a car, there are also advantages. Having more downforce allows more grip on the car, resulting in quicker turns.
The downforce of a car is tested using a wind tunnel. In a wind tunnel, a car is put on a machine, and gets air blown onto it as if it were driving. The car company sees if anything brakes from the car. If a part of the car brakes while it is in the wind tunnel, the company needs to make some adjustments to the car’s body to make sure nothing brakes while someone is driving the car.
Downforce helps keep cars on the ground, but while doing that, it can also cause drag and other disadvantages. It can be a good and a bad thing at the same time. Downforce is needed mostly on supercars because they go extremely fast. Without downforce, these cars would be flying in the air.