Popular Mechanics has busted the claims by the marketers of "Fast Skinz" that their dimple wrap improves fuel economy.
Fastskinz Test Drive: Can a Golf Ball Covering Shed MPGs?
After wrapping a Ford Flex, and driving the same route with that vehicle and an identical non-wrapped flex, the magazine concludes, shockingly, that:
Quote:
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Essentially, in our test, we found no real fuel-economy improvement from the Fastskinz MPG-Plus wrap.
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The salient point: golf ball dimples reduce drag by changing laminar flow to a turbulent boudary layer, which delays flow separation and minimizes wake. But on conventional road-going vehicles, the boundary layer is
already turbulent over most of the vehicle's surface (nearly the thickness of an
entire golf ball by the trailing edge of the roof of a small sedan!).
So adding dimples will do little to nothing to help.
> Read
the full Pop Mech article.
> There's also a detailed EM thread discussing the issue, here:
Turn your car into a golf ball! (FastSkinz wrap)