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OK, since you asked....
Most cars take their cooling air in partially from the conventional 'top of nose ramp' location, and also a significant amount from the diffuser exit. This is why there are some cars with pitch related cooling issues - the diffuser stalls and sends a nice big bubble of stagnant air down the rad duct. I got caught out with this on the very first Bentley in 2001 - because it had been designed as an NA car in 2000 and then gained a turbo engine and two intercoolers. The rads worked fine but the intercoolers , which were fed almost entirely from the diffuser exit, they didnt. The Bentley arrangement from 2003 - and whats on the Audi R10 now, partially alleviates any of this by stuffing high velocity air from the front of the car straight through the suspension and into the rad/intercooler duct. This arrangement takes very little air from the diffuser into the pods, rather it channels that air out below the intakes and through the sides. The two airstreams cross at about 45 deg. It was something we kept fairly quiet about at the time but i think everyone's clocked it now. With a few strategically placed bargeboards (hidden from view) and strakes you get an effect similar to a formula car. If you look at the leading edge of the rad intakes on the doors on the Bentley on Mike's site you will see what i mean.
I guess if you close off the top intake with louvres then you take all of your air from the diffuser exit, yes. I dont know what proportion of the air originally came from the top on the Reynard/DBA/Zytec/Creation.
The louvres in the roof panels are a means of adjusting the balance i talked about, by venting air . No, they are not wing shaped, infact they are single skinned and the top of the 'wing' that you see has no underside internally. They appear to work as intended , yes. The Bentley was exactly the same. The Audi is the opposite.
Not sure about the timescale for a tech article on the Radical - lots of people have been asking almost since day 1. I'm happy to answer stuff for you guys here when i get the time, but please understand somethings i'm going to say i'd rather not go into. We'll see.
Peter
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