10 cars with the most downforce
Hypercar performance means less now than it ever did. The acceleration of your screaming million-pound V12 Ferrari loses lustre when a 50 grand Tesla can humble it off the line. Established hyper and supercar builders need a new measurement to blow our tiny minds with. And that is downforce.
If you're a mathematical genius with a master's in aerodynamics, chances are that downforce will mean something to you. But in the real world, downforce can be hard to measure because it can be affected by everything from air pressure and density to weather conditions, wind and what exactly the car is doing at any given moment. To simplify things, we’ll attempt to stick to maximum kilograms of downforce at 155mph wherever possible. Disclaimers out the way, these are the ten cars with the most downforce.
Porsche 911 GT3 RS
Next to the regular Porsche 911, the GT3 RS looks like it comes from an entirely different planet – Planet Track. Porsche has thrown a kitchen sink's worth of knowledge at making the GT3 RS a phenomenal circuit-day machine, and a lot of that time (1,500 simulations and 250 wind tunnel hours) has been spent making sure it produces as much downforce as possible.
Witness the 'S Duct' vent at the front where you used to find a luggage compartment, wing-like front wishbones (not the MacPherson struts of lesser 911s) that each generates 40kg of downforce and, of course, that ginormous wing at the back. Those and many more features help the RS produce three times more downforce than a standard RS. Porsche doesn't quote downforce at 155mph, but given it produces 406kg at 124mph and 860kg peak at 177mph, we can surmise that the actual figure is incredibly close to the next car on the list.
Pagani Huayra BC
Which is the Pagani Huayra BC. The standard Pagani Huayra already had a mesmerising aero package with front and rear flaps popping up and down to help the car brake and corner, but the BC goes a step further with a massive rear wing that pushes it into the ground. In fact, every body panel is new (bar the roof), helping the BC generate 500kg of downforce at 155mph and a lot more than that at higher speeds.
Naturally, it isn't just the BC's aero package that is improved over the standard car. Its body is also made out of a new carbon fibre called 'carbon Triax', 50 per cent lighter and 20 per cent stronger than the material used in the regular model, shaving 132kgs from its weight. Power, meanwhile, goes up by 24PS (18kW), the BC's 6.0-litre Mercedes AMG V12 producing 764PS (644kW) total. Fittingly, the car was built in honour of Horacio Pagani's friend and the first person to buy a Pagani – Benny Caiola.
Ferrari SF90 XX
Ferrari almost completely ignored engine performance when it wanted to improve its SF90 hybrid supercar. The SF90 XX's electrified-V8 powertrain has just 30PS (22kW) more than the standard car. Instead, the company focussed on aerodynamics, which is very clear when you park the XX next to a standard SF90. Nose to tail, the XX looks like a downforce-creating monster, beginning with a huge aggressive splitter hovering millimetres from the ground.
Massive ducts make its bonnet look like a nose cone with nostrils; there are pressure-releasing vents in the front wheel arches and downforce-producing canards behind the back wheel arches. However, the most significant element (literally) is the car's massive fixed rear spoiler – the fitted to road-going Ferraris since 1995's F50. Factor in the diffuser underneath and the XX produces double the downforce of the standard SF90 – 540kg at 155mph.
Aston Martin Valhalla
The Aston Martin Valhalla is another hypercar that has downforce at the forefront of its thinking, which is apparent just by looking at it. Aston Martin says it uses the same lessons learned in Formula 1, only it's "not restricted by F1 regulations," allowing it to offer a fully active aerodynamic package. Its movable front wing sends air to the car's concave underfloor, speeding it up to produce a low pressure vacuum that sucks the Aston to the ground before firing it out the rear diffuser.
In Race mode, the rear wing rises 255mm to balance out the downforce at the front, and it can also alter its angle of attack to act as an air brake when you slam on the anchors. The rear spoiler actually trims its downforce at higher speeds, reducing drag and allowing the car to reach its 217mph top speed and produce 600kg of downforce from 155mph.
Koenigsegg Jesko Attack
Koenigsegg used to be all about straight performance – of which its cars had plenty – but a memorable incident at the Top Gear test track, involving its CCX hypercar coming off at bucket-clenching speed, extolled the virtues of downforce even on a low-drag speed machine. Unsurprisingly, the CXX had a rear wing when it returned for a second lap-record attempt.
Things have moved at pace since then, and the Jesko Attack is the culmination of the company's work. As its name would suggest, the Attack has been built to launch a full-on assault on lap times with active aero up front and a movable, twin-profile wing at the back producing 700kg of downforce at 155mph, 1,000kg at 180mph and peak downforce of 1,400kg. Just 125 Jeskos will be built – split evenly between the high downforce Attack and low-drag Absolut and, sadly, they're all already sold.
McLaren Senna
There could be any number of McLarens on this list – the P1 (600kg of downforce at 161mph) is a notable exclusion – but it seems like you can't mention the words 'downforce' and 'McLaren' without also mentioning the Senna. Built as a celebration of one of the world's best F1 drivers, taken from us too soon, the Senna, very obviously, worships at the altar of downforce.
McLaren sacrificed almost everything, including their car's aesthetics, to deliver a massive 800kg of inertia-free weight to the car at 155mph. The company's secret? An active-aero package comprising front aero blades that send air to the massive swan-neck spoiler at the back. Lessons learned in the P1 are carried over to the Senna, with an active suspension that helps get the most out of the aero package. The result is a car that could humble even the mighty P1 on track.
Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 RS
Manthey isn't just a successful race team, it has carved a niche by doing what most people think is impossible – improving Porsche’s 911 GT3 RS. How? By adding a racing car aero package. It's hard to imagine a car looking more extreme than a Porsche 911 GT3 RS but, credit to Mathey, it's done it. The work starts with a massive front splitter that juts out like the late Jimmy Hill's chin, with carbon fibre canards and a set of dive plates at all four corners to drive home the fact that this car means business.
The roof, meanwhile, has six small fins that clean up the air and send it down to the enormous dorsal fin, where you used to find a rear window, and onto the massive DRS-equipped spoiler at the back. It says all you need to know about the Porsche to hear that Manthey was happy to leave its engine well alone. Nevertheless, the changes mean the car produces 1,000kg of downforce – 140kg more than a GT3 RS – at 177mph.
McLaren W1
While some manufacturers rely on conventional downforce pushing their cars onto the road, the McLaren W1 is different; it utilises ground effect to suck itself to the Asphalt using its shape-shifting aerodynamics, Aerocell chassis and McLaren Active Long Tail rear wing. The W1's front splitter moves to send air into the Aerocell monocoque chassis – its narrow front end, raised foot box and integrated seat (that allows McLaren to shorten the car's wheelbase) aids airflow – before it’s fired out the rear diffuser.
In its most aggressive mode, the rear spoiler flattens out to extend the working area of the diffuser by 300mm. Ground effect has two benefits to McLaren – without the need for an aggressive surface aero kit (like the Senna), it has a cleaner shape and also less drag, allowing McLaren to combine 1,000kg of downforce with a heady 217mph top speed.
Ferrari F80
McLaren is doing something right because it's not the only company chasing ground effect; Ferrari has gone the same way with its F80 Hypercar. Just like the McLaren, the F80 has a series of barge plates that collect the air at the front, narrow it to increase the flow speed, then fire it out the back producing low-pressure that sucks the car into the ground.
Much of this effect is down to a carbon tub that staggers the passenger behind the driver and allows the diffuser to slope upwards from the car's midriff. The F80’s suspension also deserves special mention because it keeps the car – and its diffuser – completely flat, allowing the car's aero to do its thing as consistently as possible. The result is a mind-blowing 1,055kg of downforce at 155mph.
Aston Martin Valkyrie
Getting huge levels of downforce out of a road car isn't easy. It requires compromise, which explains why the Valkyrie looks (and essentially is) a racing car with crippling NVH to prove it. Unsurprisingly, its design is essentially a data dump of Aston’s latest personal acquisition, Adrian Newey's brain. In profile, there's so much air between the carbon tub and the front wheels that it almost looks like an open-wheeler with a considerable vent that sends the air that doesn't go to the diffuser around the sides of the car.
Witchcraft happens, and the car sucks itself to the road. Aston says the Valkyrie could produce nearly double the downforce quoted, but doing that risks making the tyres go pop. We don't need a degree in aerodynamics to know why that is a bad thing. As it is, the Valkyrie has more downforce (1,100kg at 137mph) than any other car here, but can hit 220mph flat out.
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