Everyone teasingly says their color is the fastest, but I think the record needs to be set straight The fact is that
the color that provides the least skin friction drag is red. Red also helps prevent separation of the laminar boundary layer. No one will believe this without some "its true if its written" facts.

The aerodynamic book "Theory of Wing Sections", page 109, written by Ira H. Abbott and Albert E. Von Doenhoff, explains that skin friction for an object (soap box racer) that absorbs no heat from the free stream is, lets say 1.330. The skin friction for a soap box that is 1/4 the absolute temperature of the free stream is 1.420 at 50 miles per hour. This means that the laminar skin friction increases with heat transfer from the fluid (surrounding air) to the surface of the racer. This increase is small even for the extremely low racer temperatures. This means that the surface temperature of the racer should be as hot as possible. The color of the racer should be one that absorbs as much heat as possible from the sun. This color is red!

Another aerodynamics book, "Boundary Layer Theory', written by Dr. Hermann Schlichting, page 467, explains how heat transfer to and from the surface wall (surface of racer) affects the transition of the laminar boundary layer to a turbulent boundary layer, causing more aerodynamic drag. heat transfer from the surface to the fluid (air) at VERY HIGH SPEEDS (Mach 2 and above) has a destabilizing effect on laminar boundary layer flow, but at low speeds the reverse is true. Therefore' a racer going 30 miles per hour with a hot surface (compared to the ambient air temperature) will have a more stabilizing effect on the boundary layer, thereby causing less air drag, and a faster racer. Again red is the best color.

Not speaking from your area......but around here my Red L is the fastest.........

 

Poppyseeds!
Black is fastest huh Rob....

 

Red is ONLY the fastest at catching the attention of Mr. Officer sitting way down the road…

Plus 3 coats of Zaino negates any issues with heat transfers…

 

Add another vote for RED is the fastest

 

What if you're running at night? LOL.

Touch you hand to a red truck and a black truck in the noon sun then tell me which one is hotter.

 

HUM, Red absorbs the most heat, HUH, Black must not be a color then...................... Nothing absorbs heat like black, the other color.
But Red is still the fastest due to the pig-ment squeel it makes cutting through the wind.

 

White is the fastest. It repels light and heat, which it cannot absorb, creating a buffer between the air and the vehicle. Didn't you know white L's have a lower co-efficient of drag? They practically have no wind resistance.

 

Darn it!!!!! I knew I bought the wrong color......it doesn't even "hide the dirt" like I thought it would.

Nice post Red 92

Randy
Silver '01

 

Black absorbs the most heat bud.

 

Black is hands down the fastest....I've covered this before countless times. It takes a stock truck to be the test bed because once you mod them the chip will compensate for the slower non-black colors. So has anyone in a non-black L run faster than my stock times?.......eh? Black is the fastest.

and this is proven just about every time the Olympics come up......how many Silver - True Blue - Sonic Blue - or Grey people have you seen win the Gold metal for a sprinting event? And that only leaves Red - White - and Black ....... and we know that there have been more Black Gold medalist in the sprinting events than Red - and White combined .

Get out of De Nile before you drown

 

nasty wendy thats a pretty good observation

but those are isolated case studies

if you take the average they would all be the same

but the best olyimpic sprinter was red (jim thorpe)

 

I was gonna say True Blue, but Nasty (love that name) shut the door on me.............

PEacE......................
Jim

 

Not enough true blue's around to be the fastest



j/k

 

Wow, I had no idea that someone would have so much time on their hands to sit down and try to figure out what color provides the least amount of air resistence.. Simply amazing!!

 

I've owned two Lightnings, one Silver and one Red. I can tell you right now the silver one was faster...

But to settle this I will buy a new L of each colour, all new 2004s and all made on the same day, and we'll settle this once and for all.

I'll get back to you all tomorrow when the testing is done.

K