Gnx owners being beaten by GN owners had no inference to poor design. GNX intercoolers had a slower rate of heat rejection in continuous use as compared to the GN intercooler. The GNX intercooler was more track friendly than traffic friendly. The letters referenced street racing. John do the "work energy" equations and you will know Mr. Joule on a first name basis (LOL).
A slower rate of heat rejection?
It still sounds like someone screwed up to me.
Back to the discussion at hand.
There's a few undeniable facts about a good front mounts.
1. The core better be at LEAST as wide as the opening for the rad core.
If it isn't,your end tanks are blocking airflow to the condenser core/radiator core.
2. Given the above is true,what parameters are left to play with?
Thickness?
It's a known fact among I/C designers that the thicker a core gets,the more the returns diminish - as the air gets
hotter traveling across the core,it loses ability to absorb charge heat from the core do to the temp difference dropping.
That's the difference between the air inside and the air outside to you sports fans.
3. Core construction.
The two big ones are:
A: Bar and plate
B: Tube and fin.
Bar and plate is reputed to be better flowing - lower pressure drop across the internal core.
Extruded tube and fin - slightly more internal friction and a slightly higher pressure drop across the internal core.
Advances ave been made in both core designs over the years (with variations along the way)
Bar and plate has it's drawbacks:
The tubes are going to be weaker due to the seams along the tube lengths.
From an engineering standpoint,there is no arguing this.
Will the core hold up for what you're doing?
Probably.I don't see anyone running one at 60+ pounds of boost for extended periods of time.
These aren't Diesel trucks we're racing.
There's also the ease the cooling medium (airflow) can travel through the core as ambient airspeed gets
higher traveling through the core..
The entrance to each outside opening through the core presents a squared corner which causes turbulence and a
loss of flow through the passageway.
That's basic,irrefutable Fluid Mechanics.
With a rounded opening the air would pass easier into the openings between the rows and through the rows of
the core.
No dispute there .... it's obvious.
So you may have slightly better cooling ability across the internals,but if the ambient airflow through the core drops
as speed rises,all you're doing is pumping lots of poorly cooled air through to your engine as well as blocking flow
to your rad.
That might explain why some of the car and plate designs I've seen in the last few years are so darned thick!
Tube and fin:
An extruded,one piece tube is going to be stronger than a welded design of equal wall thickness and material spec.
The ambient airflow across the core will be greater for a given speed due to the rounded openings leading to
the cooling passages between the rows of the core.
One would think that an I/C like the V1 wouldn't be able to perform like it does due to these different factors,but
it does right down to the high sevens apparently.
The core thickness on the V1 was around 4.25",IIRC leaving about 1.5" between the I/C and front bumper rebar.
Compare that to some of the "monster coolers" that have been used to run into the 8's with little to no room between.
Is daily driving a problem for this I/C?
Not that I ever saw.
I had a three row,"high efficiency" recored rad',stock cooling fan,and the A/C condenser on my car with a trans cooler
up front and NEVER saw the high side of 185 degrees with a 160 stat' on board.
I think the reason the V1 was so successful was because Tony paid attention to the flow across the core with
good spacing between the rows - similar spacing to the stocker,according to write up at GN/TTYPE.org.
The tubes of the core appear to be a good grade of Aluminum alloy,not run of the mill base Aluminum.
The wall thickness of the tubes appear to be fairly thin,but not thin enough to comproimize structural integrity.
That's probably how it works so well at heat dissipation.
Rumor had it Tony was using OEM quality cores.
I don't doubt that when you consider who he worked for.
