So Honda seems to have made remarkably few concessions to practicality when designing the Insight (Gen 1 in particular, more concessions (800+lbs) in the 2010). I'd love to get everyone's thoughts on where they might have traded some additional drag for some modicum of practicality. The grill opening seems to be one place. They might have gone with more pronounced tire spats as well. They added a rear wiper to the hatch.
Just throwing out a few. It would be interesting to mention how they've designed the rest of the body around these compromises—no front wheel skirts means that the trailing edge of the wheel well is rounded and recessed, for example. Just taping on skirts wouldn't do as well as addressing the compromise they made to lessen the impact of not having them in the first place.
I hope to prototype and test a lot of ideas come warmer weather and the completion of my thesis.
Also, is anyone familiar with a foam called Zotefoam? I ran into it being used to make fairings...
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