Question about Vents?

Hm....this may sound stupid but why are there vents (scoops) on the side of cars.......such as the porsche and stuff.........like what does it do?........is it made for it to like look good or is there like a reason for it too.........sorry if it sounds stupid but i never really found out why they are there.....

My Yugo has a hood scoop - it's for the heater - the faster you drive the better it works...
On most cars these vents are purely decorative and serve no real purpose but to induce massive amounts of drag to help the car slow down quicker...
Some vehicles have mid or rear mounted engines and need to have cooling air for them, thus these "vents" (although most just mount the radiator at the front of the car and use several miles of leaky plumbing to circulate the coolant)

most vents are there to get air-flow to parts of the car that need it for whatever reason. hood scoops can feed air to a top mount intercooler (like on a Subaru or a Nissan Pulsar GTi-R), or just let air into the engine compartment to cool it. alot of scoops/vent/ducts on the sides of cars will be used to help cool the brakes, as these get hot as all hell even during regular driving. this is also why most performance wheels employ an open-spoke design. scoops on the front can be used for intercoolers and radiators.

Actually, let me correct myself. Those vents are not there for the purposes of cooling - but rather to fire rockets out of. That's why racing cars have so many vents and scoops - to destroy the competition.

Originally posted by 2strokebloke
Actually, let me correct myself. Those vents are not there for the purposes of cooling - but rather to fire rockets out of. That's why racing cars have so many vents and scoops - to destroy the competition.

:lol:

rice-rockets! :lol:

Mid-engined and rear-engined cars have side and rear vents to facilitate and improve airflow to and around the engine.

Prime examples are the Porsche 911s, Toyota MR2s, Honda NSX and Pontiac Fieros.... All have vents that directly feed the engines.