Easy Aero Fix? (Modding a pickup?)

[ebacherville]

I had a turismo, had the same nose as the rampage, was a very fuel efficient car, and looked decent too, I had a buddy with a 2.2 turbo Shelby like the one above that he had went through the motor and beefed up a bit, he was the fastest guy in town... there muscle cars would want to race him at stop lights and he'd race, then and after launching and beating the muscle car a bit, he let them pull up on him then he'd get back into it and pull ahead again just to annoy the led sled drivers.. totally insane car.. was basically the Honda civic of its day.

[OneBadBird]

Back to this "fastback crap"....I've been wondering what the deal is with the Kammback since I saw AndrewJ glue one on his buggy...

From Wikipedia: "Kamm showed that a better drag-reducing tail-end design for a car is a tapering teardrop shape that cuts off abruptly.

Prior to his thesis, the teardrop tapering smoothly to a point was considered optimal. Kamm showed that an abbreviated teardrop actually worked better; the air still flows as if the entire teardrop were still there, but without the surface drag of the long point."

Also more reading at http://homepage.mac.com/christopher....backStory.html


Gleaned from my research, apparently the optimal shape is a teardrop that's cut off where the cross-sectional area of it is 50% of the maximum of the whole drop. To me, that means that the truck-fastback would be right on the money, it seems like the top part of the cab is half and the tailgate is half. The only bad thing (apparently) is that the slope back is actually a bit too shallow. A shorter bed would be better for a bit until you start looking like a CRX, then you're good.

So oddly enough to me, what Smoky says is correct except the part that it wouldn't work....he notes that the aero experts want an abruptly truncated tail like the CRX, 300ZX, etc....but not a fastback truck. Yet, I look at a fastback truck, it has the truncated tail like those cars, just a bit longer in the tail.

The truncated thing fascinates me...not necessarily in a good way. Why the heck would that be BETTER than a full tail? I read why, but it still seems counterintuitive to me.