I found a Lexus LS430 in the parking lot and tried to discretely take some pictures of the underside. The LS430 has ( with optional air suspension ) the exact same Cd -
point twenty five - as that of the new Prius and the first generation Insight, yet looks like a brick to the untrained eye.
Sorry for the crappy pictures. Like I said, I tried to be discreet about it and not get shot at. Note the ridges versus dimpling - did Lexus drop the dimpling gimmick on the LS430 , because I certainly do not see the dimples.
The generation previous was the LS400 and had a Cd of .27 . The car was even more brick like in appearance and I was always baffled by how the car could get such low drag. I did a lot of reading on the car and read several times that one of the main things that made the car so streamlined was the underbelly.
Lexus even made a commercial that bragged about this fact that the car even had a dimpled underside to produce less drag. I never managed to catch the commercial, and even called Lexus about it. The commercial is titled " Dimples " and shows a LS400 which is turned upside down in a ( computer generated no doubt ) wind tunnel.
I found a similar commercial here, but 'no cigar'.
