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Old 11-07-2009, 05:13 PM   #1 (permalink)
aspera
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: KC
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Kill Bill 2, DeTomaso Magusta, Shelby, aero, solar heating

I'm watching Kill Bill 2. There's a Mangusta in the background of one of the scenes. The roofline of that cars is amazing. (Google it now.) Mangusta, as you know, means "mongoose" in Italian. It was meant to be a Cobra killer, and I just read about Shelby's history in a magazine a week ago. He was involved in some unusual cars that you wouldn't even suspect. (Scaglietti Corvette anyone?)

1959 Scaglietti Corvette For Sale

Anyway, Ecomodder Forum has me looking at the aerodynamic shapes of older cars. The rear windows of the Mangusta were like a magnet. Then it occured to me that the windows would have another advantage. They'd create a greenhouse. Normally that's bad but if a car was designed for it, solar energy would reduce cold starts to near zero on sunny days.

An engine would be closer to operating temperature at start-up and then cooled by airflow as the car was driven.

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