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Old 05-05-2014, 04:22 PM   #8 (permalink)
aerohead
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why

Here's some thoughts:
*In 1928 General Motors was the world's largest auto maker.
*By 1928,GM's Sales Division was already fearful that all their products were going to end up looking alike.
*By the early 1930s,GM officially adopted the annual styling change as a matter of corporate policy.
*After this time,if you were going to be in the automobile business,your products were going to have to look different every year.
*Products were targeted at every conceivable demographic.
*Since then we've been married to the 'law of the Paris dressmaker',as GM's CEO,Alfred P.Sloan Jr. spoke of it.
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The aerodynamics were 'finished' by 1922.Since 'wing' type cars have human factors challenges,we're stuck with the half-body 'pumpkin seed' of Paul Jaray for low drag.
Since low drag cars will all look alike,we get into the vicious cycle of the annual styling change,as since 1931,the buying public has had a firm expectation that next years cars will look different.Which can't happen with low drag cars.
And certain 'suppliers' have grown accustomed to profits from high-drag auto components and won't willingly see to their own extinction.
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In 1985,Hucho remarked that cars with Cd 0.13 or lower were not a question of 'technological feasibility',but rather a matter of what emphasis low aerodynamic drag played within design specifications.
Automotive design singularly lags all other product manufacturing with respect to fluid mechanics.
'Whatever Lola wants...,... Lola gets...,...'
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