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Originally Posted by Patrick
I think there may be some gains available on the front. Take a look at this: Shape Effects on Drag
The rounded-front bullet shape has about 1/4 the drag of a flat plate. |
Good link.
Another crazy idea, gold ball dimples?
In addition to the Goldfish or truncated teardrop shape?
EDIT.....did some more searching, and found a similar thread.
http://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=6054
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The gray semi-circle at the right end represents a 2" convex mirror. The gray triangle in the background is the mount on the car.
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However at the trailing edge, a taper to a thin tip or edge is a good thing. It encourages the airflow to rejoin itself smoothly. An airplane wing is a good example of both the rounded blunt leading edge and a tapered trailing edge.
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I really should edit that wikipedia article that seems to be responsible for perpetuating the bs that a Kamm back can create some sort of virtual and equivalent teardrop shape. It can't. It's an engineering trade-off. You cut it sharply at the point of diminishing returns. Most of the drag of a truncated teardrop will be in proportion to the cross sectional area of the truncation.
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Back in about 1980 I put some bullet mirrors on my 1966 Mustang similar to this.
http://www.midlandwheels.com/Shop/P-...et-Mirror.html
I'm now looking at these with a new insight.