Quote:
Originally Posted by Regenerit
So how come some cars are touted to be aerodyamic when they have their modified bumper (such as in an insight) all the way down to inches off of the ground when in this would theoretically raise the Cd of the vehicle?
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The ideal ground clearance for car aero is around 5". Land speed racers, NASCARs and other performance vehicles are modified to have a lower, slanting nose in order to increase downforce. This is
at the expense of drag. In the hypermiling world, the AeroCivic, at .17 Cd, has no ground-scraping air dam.
You can theoretically lower your CdA with a mod that increases A, but why do that when you can keep A constant and nudge the CdA up even higher? Three steps forward instead of two forward and one back.
Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled thread.