Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroMPG
Just less of a turkey, speaking relatively!
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That's fair, it was competing with its peers of 1954, but I think the principles of automobile aerodynamic drag reduction were well understood by then. I was being a smart alec with my "I have my Hucho and Bristol didn't" remark, and though Bristol had only been in the car biz a few years, and though it was an era when the practical lessons of 50 years of aerodynamic experience could be boiled down to two semesters, the Bristol 450 Coupe had some interesting innovations. The fins, which were assumed to be stabilizers, were more likely (IMHO) there to reduce vortexes spilling over the sides and into the wake of the roof section--that's what they look like to me here in 2009 and the assumptions of mid-50s auto journalists not withstanding...well, in the mid-60s Jim Hall let the industry assume he was bleeding the Chaparral's underbody air up through holes in the wheelwells in order to keep the tires cool, I'll bet the Bristol folks knew how to keep a secret too.
If we crank up the time machine ahead ten years, we get the 1964 Cobra Coupe, also a successful endurance racer and another source of inspiration...but to me it looks too modern, too fast, and I think an econocar version would seem like a parody rather than an homage (and I wouldn't do it anyway because like the Bristol, that body would be too expensive). Still, it would fit the Lotus 7 layout and if you got rid of the spoiler it would be pretty slippery.
