Quote:
Originally Posted by RobertSmalls
That's what Honda said too, and we ended up with a Cd of 0.25. I'm inclined to go all the way, since I think it will be departure angle and visibility, not overall length, that make the tail cumbersome to drive daily.
The rear view mirror looks entirely through the upper hatch glass. The lower hatch glass is very helpful while reversing, but not useful on the highway. I'd be okay with blocking the view through the lower hatch glass, but a rear view camera would become almost required, adding to the cost of the project.
I do see the widening gap between the hatch and the streamline. But isn't that normal, as the falling pressure after the apex causes streamlines to move farther apart? I can't really picture disorderly, reversed flow in the few cm between the illustrated streamline and the glass.
And, this picture has me wondering where the stagnation point is on a stock car, and on one with a grille block. Do I want to send air over the car where there's more room for air, or under the car to fill the vacuum under the tail? |
A look at Kamm's K-Car under smoke ( in the FLOW-IMAGES ) shows the smoke hugging the top of the roof until his roofline exceeds the template curvature and clearly separates,beginning it's tumble into the wake.
I believe Honda's car is doing the same.A smoke rake would have been helpful,giving us more lines to interpret.
Short of that,and with the smoke NOT hugging the hatch,I can only interpret it as un-attached flow.And my guess is that like GM,it is a concession to outward rear vision for the driver.
The stagnation point should be directly in front of the grille opening.
Considering concept cars with perfect full bellypans,to achieve the lowest drag,the cars are always lowered,some deploying a moveable chin spoilers to prevent airflow underneath.This also showed up for me on the CRX.