[RobertSmalls]

You can get Excel to fit a parabola to anything, but the R² (the correlation coefficient) tells you how tightly your curve fits the data. 0 is no correlation, and 1 is a perfect correlation. In Excel, go to Add Trendline - Options - Display R-squared on chart.

Since the template was hand-drawn, it probably is a parabola, so I expect an R² around 0.99. It would be interesting to know if the Honda's tail is also a perfect parabola, or only a looser approximation of one.


Actually, you'll need a second foam template for the sides. The first picture in post #41 shows one template in the vertical plane, and the same template on a different scale in the ground plane.

You want your tail to have the same height and angle where it takes over from the Honda tail, so you'll need to scale your equation so the y and dy/dx of the template match those of the Honda, at the point where the Honda ends. Or just eyeball it as I did in the second picture in post #41.