[aerohead]

Originally Posted by ScotD

Yes, all good points. If you want side-by-side seating then you'll be wide enough to enclose the front wheels, and crash-worthiness is certainly a consideration - but not one I'm attempting to address. At 300 lbs. (target), I'm not going to come out well in a crash involving a 3000 lb. SUV! I'm willing to accept that for the advantages of light weight and minimizing aerodynamic drag.

So, for my project, there is still that question, which provides the best aerodynamic efficiency? Narrow body with front wheels outboard which gives less area but worse drag coefficient? Or wider body, enclosing the wheels, having more area but better drag coefficient?

For extreme simplicity you might compare your open wheel monoposto at Cd 0.15 at it's frontal area,compared to the fully-enclosed body at Cd 0.11 with it's frontal area.