[aerohead]

Originally Posted by MTrenk

The Toyota is underwhelming, but it sure as hell made the business people happy I'm sure. That's the only way that car would make it to market. Toyota probably came up with a version of that car with a .26 Cd, and it was rejected by the marketing department because the business people know the market better than the engineers.

I am a student, but that doesn't really matter that much. I read all sorts of stuff, and I use my brain when I read it. I've read all sorts of vehicle dynamics books, and I don't agree with everything everyone says. There are some books out there that are considered 'definitive' in their respective fields, but they are matters of reference, not engineering bibles. I prefer to try to figure things out on my own, it's the best preface to a journey to the library, I've found. You people need to quit it with this Hucho talk, because a lot of the conclusions you guys have written down on these forums aren't really worth anything, IMO.

At the last Supermileage SAE competition, the highest score was 1475 mpg. Designed, budgeted, and built by 20 year olds. Most of those cars are under 10 grand. Nuff said.

Yeah,you wouldn't want to pay any attention to a P.hD. mechanical engineer who ran a world-class full-scale wind tunnel and invented aerodynamic detail optimization.
At 20-3 mph burn-and-coast,I'm certain that all that SAE technology will really dovetail into the world of real road-going automobiles.