Motor Trend explains Prius' "blockish" front corners / wheel arch interaction

[bwilson4web]

Hi,

I'm still looking in the photo archives from the Prius groups that attended the user presentations. However, I found this reasonably useful photo that may help provide some detail:

Provided from: Jon's Public Gallery.

I remember the impression of a 'tunnel' down the middle. It may be that we're just seeing a sophisticated tire, air dam system, not a general purpose air dam.

Bob Wilson

[MetroMPG]

I've edited the title of this thread to clarify what I think Bob wants to tak about here.

Let's try to stay on topic of the front corner/wheel arch aero interaction on the new Prius, or topics directly related to it.

People who only wish to continue debating the semantics of blunt vs. pointy can do so in the other already existing recent thread(s).

[MetroMPG]

Bob, I found a reference in Hucho that might shed some light on what Toyota is doing here (assuming it's real). I'll post it this evening. Too nice outside today to be on the computer!

[lunarhighway]

i think here's another example of this design feature on the new toyota IQ...

the car is a smart alternative and has a 0.299Cd that's pretty good for such a tiny blob of a car... it really has these square bumps on the front fenders.... traditionally you'd want this area to be as rounded as possible, but since the little car doesn't have much room for rounding to begin with, it's quite interesting someone wants to add some additional squareness to it.

this might also explain why some square looking cars of the 80's where more aero than they looked