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Car Bibles : The Hybrids Bible

Did Citroën really get there first?

The Aurel Persu car
For the history buffs, here's a nugget of trivia : Romanian engineer Aurel Perşu actually came to the conclusion that the teardrop was the best shape in 1922 and built a vehicle to prove it. He patented the shape in 1924 and both Ford and GM expressed an interest in buying the patent at the time, but since they didn't want to commit to also building the car, Perşu refused their offers. That vehicle had a drag coefficient of 0.22 - lower than most vehicles today - and it's still fully functional and on display at the Romanian National Technical Museum in Bucharest. Since 2006, the museum has awarded an annual Aurel Perşu Aerodymanic Automobile prize to the car manufacturer that produced a vehicle in the previous model year with a drag coefficient lower than 0.3. In 2006 the Mercedes S-Class took the prize and in 2007 the prize was given to Toyota Corolla.



Read more: http://www.carbibles.com/hybrids_bib...#ixzz2hNHPqFbo