Video: discussion of several GM Volt aero features

[theycallmeebryan]

Meh.....

I like the looks of the EV-1 much better.... such a shame what they did to that masterpiece....

They should have took the EV-1 and made it a little more flashy for all the modern high maintenance Americans out there. Hell, even if it added .1 Cd in flash, I'd be happy with a .20 Cd production car.

For me, function first, how it appears second...

This should be the Chevrolet Volt ....
GM Unveils Concept Car That Gets 80 Miles A Gallon

[gascort]

Nice in that video how it shows the mirrors in the smoke - Old Bob Lutz told us those were "aerodynamically neutral". Obviously not true. Insignificant? Maybe. I bet at 80 mph those become pretty significant.

[itsmedc]

Looking at how they changed the way the mirrors mount on the volt from the show car to the production car reminded me of some of the discussions about how, removing the mirrors on the Chevy Caprice from 1991 would make the aerodyamics worse. GM had mounted the mirrors in the "pocket" of the front door window (were there used to be vent windows back in the 60's and 70's) for years; and still do on most of their cars today. HOWEVER, on the 91 Caprice they used a little pedestal mount down on the shoulder of the door.
So maybe removing the mirrors on those big rounded Caprice's would actually make the aero worse... or maybe what some people were replacing them with made it worse.
Apparently the Caprice could have used the squared rearend of the earlier models though; that might have improved the land barge aero even more.

Now if I could just get one of those Freightliner Cascadia “Innovation Truck” camera wings for my 72 pickup; I know to try attaching them at the door shoulder instead of trying to replace my vent windows with aero mirrors.