[spacemanspif]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

The leading face of the wheel fairings is not the issue; but rather the trailing surfaces. Which are truncated, but at least cleanly:

I think the above was directed at my comment. Sorry for the confusion but I was referring to the back of the front wheels. I re-read my post and saw how it could be misunderstood.

So let me clarify: Make a "boat tail" for the back edge of the front wheels. Attach these boat tails with a hinge and spring. When you make a tight turn, the tail hits the side of the car and flexes the spring while the wheels continue to turn tighter. The spring then returns the tail to its proper position when the wheels return to their normal straight line driving orientation.

For the urban owner of an Elio, front wheel boat tails might not make much sense but for highway commuters, like myself, I think it would be worth the effort of testing boat tails' benefit.

Not sure but maybe Elio is using truncated rears for the aesthetics at the cost of efficiency but better profit. Lets be honest, the people on this board are a small sect of the general population and even if everyone active on this site bought a 2014 Elio, the company would fail. So they need to appeal to a more broad spectrum of car buyers and styling is a great way to do so. Will it cost 5 or even 10mpg? Maybe. But it might sell 10,000 more units...