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Once upon a time I talked at length to the chief mechanic of a Le Mans winning team for Porsches. They used radiators on the front corners. The theory is there is a high pressure area in the front of the air dam, and a low pressure on the side of the air dam in front of the front tire - basically the air going around the corner is accelerating and has good velocity, creating a low pressure area to suck the air out of the radiator. Further, this is "free" and produces almost no additional drag on the car.
Energy, or "Horsepower" is work done over a period of time. It seems to me air going THROUGH the front grill is horsepower. The more air we slow down, push through the grill, then accelerate back up to speed at the back of the car, the more horsepower we are using.
Therefore, the less air which goes through the grill, the less energy lost.
which is maybe obvious to the rest of you, but it takes a bit for me to get my head wrapped around it.
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