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Old 12-03-2009, 02:04 AM   #3 (permalink)
Christ
Moderate your Moderation.
 
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While you're at it, collect some data about exactly how much positive lift is created by a series of vehicles at a series of speeds, then compare it to their weight.

And don't think for a second that anyone is going to be taking data seriously when it's in regard to a car built in the 1960's. We might take you seriously if you find reasonable data from cars that people still have readily available.

Oh - the Corvair had a serious problem with center of gravity and center of balance, as well. The aerodynamic lift was probably not much worse than ohter cars of the area, but it didn't have the weight up front to deal with it safely.

Another car that was a little squirrely at very high speeds was the Thunderbird of the same era. It had a boat nose that split the air just above the bumper, and the lower section of the nose acted more like a wing than a bumper valance. At 70+ MPH, even with the weight of a (390?) V8 in there, you had something much touchier than power steering, slightly south of safe.

Again, that was in the 60's. I've not seen a car designed like that since then, that I can recall. That tells me that OEM's have addressed the concern with regard to vehicle safety at normal highway speeds.
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