Recently, I challenged members of the EcoModder forums to design an aerodynamic Smart Fortwo concept car. The results were very impressive.
The parameters of the challenge were that the car must be based on the standard Smart Fortwo Coupe and keep the styling of the car consistent. Other than that members could go wild with any sort of ecomod they wanted.
Entries ranged from conservative wheel skirts and discs to full boattails to the Smartera, pictured above. The Smartera, cleverly combining the Smart styling and shape into the Aptera body was the clear winner, both for being ingenious and incredibly aerodynamic. Congrats, botsapper!
To see the rest of the entries check out the image gallery below.
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The smart fortwo is advertised as having a Cd of 0.29. Not great, not abysmal. But it’s a development of a city car and is best suited for low speed missions where aerodynamic considerations aren’t as important as they are for a vehicle designed to spend a significant portion of its time at highway speeds. My very brief writeup about the smart fortwo is at: http://hamiltonianfunction.blogspot.com/2009/05/smart-car.html
Rob
Rob,
I actually asked smart about that since it seems wrong and the official word from the company was .345 on the cd.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. The Cd information for various vehicles is really all over the place. Now that you mention it, I think you supplied this information in a forum post on the same vehicle after I’d complained about digging up drastically different numbers for it at different locations.
For the intended use of that car though, I think Cd isn’t as important as it would be for a more “freeway friendly” vehicle. I’ve read some reviews and people find the steering bit “squirrely” at highway speed. If it’s driven primarily in town at low speeds in stop and go city traffic, vehicle weight and tire rolling resistance will dominate the forces to be overcome.
Rob
You want to see an aerodynamic car? check out http://www.futurevehicletechnologies.com
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