Quote:
Originally Posted by Vman455
I think this gets at the real issue behind the higher drag numbers for exotic cars. Take a look at the plan views of various low-drag cars and their hypercar counterparts (especially the back halves):
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I don't think that explains it, at least not all of it. Almost all of the supercars have MORE plan taper at the greenhouse than the low-drag cars you mentioned. They also have side ducting that vents into the wake, which gets rid of some of the drag that comes from the wider rear.
The Veyron's rear has no taper to speak of, so that's probably bad. As someone else mentioned, the Hennessey Venom is just some Elise parts made a little bigger and slapped together, no surprise there (speaking of Lotus, the Exige comes from the factory with a ton of drag and not much downforce too). I also doubt that Koenigsegg does much careful aero optimization.
The areas I see on supercars that more drag comes from are:
1. Inlet scoops (fairly common, but are mostly pretty small and I don't imagine they add too much drag)
2. More radiators, other cooling ducts
3. Fat tires
4. Wings, canards, and other aero add-ons
5. Subtle things like the diffuser being angled higher to provide more downforce and more drag.
Without these things, I think the basic supercar shape (nearly perfectly streamlined greenhouse + nose) probably actually does very well, and the MP4-12C setup of having side scoops feed radiators that vent to the wake is probably a lot better than having radiators in the front.