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Old 02-28-2010, 03:01 PM   #10 (permalink)
RobertSmalls
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Quote:
Originally Posted by winkosmosis View Post
What makes me die is that they use the teardrop template to guide what they do on the rear, when it's completely arbitrary how the curve falls on the photo. For example, the way people use it here, a lifted truck supposedly has a shallower optimal aerocap angle than a stock one.
The template also has no way of knowing what the actual airflow over the car is like, or the speed that it's travelling at.
People misusing the template is a big problem, and I think you're misunderstanding how to use it, too. The template, correctly used, is fully constrained:

Align the ground planes, scale the template to the same height as the roof of the car, then slide the template forward or backward to align the highest point on the roof with the tallest point on the template.

The ideal half-teardrop has no ground clearance. A streamlined car is only an approximation of that ideal.
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