Quote:
Originally Posted by aerohead
Mercedes did publish in the 1950s that when they enclosed their Gran Prix racer,even though the frontal area jumped,the overall drag factor (CdA) went down.
When So Cal Speed Shop wanted top performance,they enclosed their So Cal belly tank lakester inside a fully-enclosed streamliner body of greater frontal area.
|
I completely agree. This is why I designed my aero semi truck this way. Here is a quote from my web site:
One can see by these fiberglass pics that the rig does not have the traditional look of a other class 8 rigs. Other Class 8 rigs slope-in the hood starting at the firewall under the "A" pillars. Then they highly swoop the wheel wells over the tires and then drop-off the swoop in front of the doors. This "old-school" automotive design is based on 70-80 year old automotive theories and mind-sets.
One of the best examples of those old-fashioned designs is shown by the pic below on the left of a 1941 Willys. Obviously, contemporary Class 8 trucks don't have the pointy nose like the Willys. They just cut-off the point of the hood and have that big, dumb, square diesel truck radiator as part of the body! At least back in 1941 they got it right and placed the radiator inside that pointy nose. They ducted the radiator engine cooling air through that lower horizontal lower body grill. So all other modern Class 8 trucks took the best part of the 1941 Willys design and destroyed it, by cutting off the pointy, aerodynamic front end, and exposed those big, dumb, square radiators.
This rig is based-upon the more modern 21st. century design of a Bullet Train. After all, if you were building a new design Class 8 rig, and you wanted superior aerodynamics and fuel savings, what would you base your design upon? A 70- 80 year old design, or a 21st. century design that travels up to 350mph on a bullet train???
