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Attached is the last good looking pic of MAX with the Lalo body, it shows how I'd given the classic mid-'50s stern a light Kamming. The problem was (aero-wise) the Lola Mk1 had too steep a stern; the top surface closely approximates the Hucho-determined lousiest angle of 30 degrees.
So here I am at a crossroad. I got a replacement pair of rear fenders from Curtis Unlimited and could rebuild the back end of the car exactly as before, or I could start fresh and make an optimized Kamm back (or even pointy) tail for it. There are a couple factors that make this an iffy question for me:
-I never got to the tuft-testing stage so it's quite possible the air separates from the body right behind the cockpit already, in which case the tail treatment is hardly relevant.
-I want this particular vehicle to have the look and feel of an antique race car rather than a modern high mileage car. The Cheapskate will be an all-out econoracer, but this car is...much of its charm is it doesn't look like a high mileage car, people ask "How fast does it go?" and "What year is it?" and are amazed when I tell them it's getting over 80 mpg on the highway and I made it myself. I don't want to lose that relic-of-a-lost-era thing with too obvious mileage mods.
So here's the compromise I'm considering. As y'all know, an excessively steep angle in the back can be improved with a spoiler. If I keep the same shape as before, but raise the tail aerodynamically with a near-vertical spoiler, I should get some improvement over what I've got, without losing the vintage racer look. Are there flaws to this logic? Or better ideas? I'm not thinking Lightning McQueen height, but maybe I should...for drag reduction, is the ideal angle from rear of cockpit to top of spoiler 12 degrees?
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