Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
I take your point about the back half. I'm just suggesting that if they had stuck with a Speedster windshield and less angular mid-body it would have more of a 356 feel and possibly better cross-wind performance.
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Yeah,I'm not sure where they were coming from.The original architecture of the 356 is hard to fault.
They were in a 4-seater class and may have felt impelled to soften the tumblehome to create more headroom in the cabin,then do the bubble roof to trim back on frontal area.Don't know.
I wonder why they did the pontoon fenders at all.There's no aerodynamic reason for them,unless pylon testing showed up a problem with body roll or something,and they thought they needed a wider track.
As far as the cross-section goes,it's perfectly okay to go from a semi-circle to a square section,then morph back to a semi-circle for interior packaging reasons.The air doesn't care.It 'IS' very important to get the aft-body correct though if you do it.
The fastback form has the lowest possible drag only if it has the 40-degree minimum tumblehome,and soft upper edge radii.