Quote:
Originally Posted by California98Civic
So, even if the flow patterns had changed somewhat, with mirrors and without them, the total power lost to drag was not significantly reduced by the changes?
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Correct,no difference.
Ford reported on this over twenty years ago during their Probe concept car series R&D.
When GM did their PNGV Precept,around 1999,they found that all the features drag on the car amounted to Jack Diddly.Nothing to fret over.
If you take the average of your mirrors height and width and multiply that value by 6,this is the distance behind the mirror where the air has essentially recovered from the disturbance.
For their frontal area,the mirrors drag is statistically insignificant compared to the overall drag.And its disturbance to the free stream should be dampened by the time the air makes it to the C-pillars.