Do any of you guys here that own a 4th generation Camaro or Firebird / TA want to volunteer to do the world a favor ?
I'm sure I'm not the only person on this forum that would LOVE to see a tuft test of one of these cars - especially around the rear glass.
Just tape some tufts to your back window and have a friend in the passenger seat video or photograph what the tufts do on the back glass as you drive along. ( easy
)
I used to have a sales brochure of one of these cars when they first came out that had an excellent top view of the car. The lines of the car just looked so 'right' for good aero, and I was shocked to find it had an identical Cd to the more boxy previous generation car. ( point 34 )
Just looking at the slope of the windshield, the pointed nose, the teardrop profile of the windshield - both front and back, and the overall sleek lines of the car made me believe at the time that this car could have has a really good Cd.
That just goes to show that you can't always judge a cars aerodynamics based on what looks sleek ! It was only later after reading more on aerodynamics that I saw where the aerodynamic problem areas were on the cars - the rear. If you look at the rear of a Camaro or Firebird, the rear is very rounded and most likely leads to a lot of turbulence.
The cars really do seem to have a lot of aerodynamic potential though, and i thought it was a real shame that the more retro style has become the latest fashion.
As I look at the slope of the rear glass, I can't help but notice a similarity to both the curvature and angles of that on the EV-1. This has me really interested in seeing just how that the air flows across the back window of one of these cars.