Does he still have the job ?
He should be out after this rubbish hit the news.
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According to Welburn, there are several drawbacks:
The fender skirt causes tire pressure to increase.
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Oh boy.
All Insight I owners are now running to their cars pulling off the skirts !
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Removable skirts are difficult to keep in place properly, plus there’s the added cost of each skirt.
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It obviously costs more than to produce nothing.
But they haven't been falling off Insights.
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Pick one: To use a fender skirt, the rear tires need to be narrower to fit inside the wheel well or the vehicle track needs to be narrower or the body needs to be what he called “pulled out” to accommodate the same size tires that are steering the car.
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Pick one :
- tires are oversized anyway
- slightly narrower track on the rear reduces drag
- the amount the underbody needs to be pulled out isn't an issue, as car manufacturers and the aftermarket have been doing it for decades with optional sideskirts between the wheels and plastic fender extenders for souped up adventure versions of plain cars.
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Welburn said pulling the body out, essentially widening the body where the rear tires are located, increases aerodynamic drag.
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Slightly, and you gain it back + a bit extra drag reduction because of the covers.
Besides, quite a few folks on here have done it without adding extra area.
If they can do it, surely a GM engineer can do it if he's worth his pay ?
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Says Welburn: "The short answer is, skirts don’t help on a production car."
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Those Honda guys had it all wrong then.
Same for the Citroen blokes and countless other manufacturers who have used wheel skirts in the day.
If you wonder why GM USA doesn't have efficient vehicles, you can now pin a name on it : Welburn.
We'll burn more gas