Mercedes C Class patented ventilated tail lights

[MetroMPG]

aw this on Fifth Gear and went straight to the web to find out more...



High pressure air from under the car is vented at the leading edge (side) of the tail light assemblies.

Apparently this accomplishes 2 things:

1 - relieves under car pressure, reducing lift and eliminating the need for a deck lid spoiler

2 - interacts with the flow at the transition at the rear of the car in a way that reduces turbulence, reducing drag.

The car has a decent (for modern production cars) cd of 0.27.



More info:

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/02/09/m...ted-taillights

http://www.worldcarfans.com/rsslink....ed-tail-lights

[MetroMPG]

Is it possibly just marketing hype?

Maybe.

But they do claim 0.27. So there is some proof in their pudding. Though how much the vents contribute isn't stated - and there's still piles of room for improvement, and not just this incremental stuff we're seeing.

The number of current production cars with a Cd of .27 is small.