Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Dave
We're not ignoring you, dude.
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I was ignoring it, until the thread title changed recently. Interesting idea.
Unfortunately, the old Volvo would need a lot more work than newer cars. Here's a picture of the 2008 Volvo C30:
Notice how the roofline starts to fall away above the driver's head. If you wanted to streamline the Volvo Amazon, you'd want to re-work the roof starting in front of the B-pillars. With the C30, you'd get good results even if you started behind the C-pillars.
Here, I slapped a streamlining template on the Amazon:
If you start cutting at the C-pillars, you get to the 20% marker on the template without increasing the length of the car, with a miniscule reduction in rear area. With an enormous amount of effort, you can reach 40% on the template without reducing ride height or increasing overall length. There would be a measurable improvement in drag, but still much worse than a streamlined body truncated at 70%.
This template has a fixed fineness ratio, so if you manage to lower the height of your roof, the template becomes less tall and less long.
Another strike against the Amazon: it's got 50 year old engine technology. Things have improved since then.