Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
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Long story short — the underbody shouldn't be flat, it should be two pontoons to enclose the wheels and a Bucky Fuller 'air keel' in between. I'll leave how to apply that to a Prius as an exercise.
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I agree but he declined to entertain ideas dealing with diffusers early on in the thread. In my opinion nothing should be left unexplored or predetermined to be a waste of time as design is circular not linear.
I also think it's a mistake to go this far without top view, bottom and rear views.
I have a 1/8 scale die-cast model of a Porsche 911 that has proven useful in 3D thinking about aerodynamic modifications on my car.
I'm suggesting here and now that a Prius model be purchased and a scale mock-up be fabricated.
Design is a process of making decisions, informed decisions. Design is not an end product, the product is the fruit of the design tree with lots of dead-end branches.
Working in model form may be time consuming but many things just become apparent that otherwise are surprises once you start on the real thing.
Surprises are even more time consuming - and expensive.
EDIT:
One of my favorite solutions to the given problem, pause the video at 2:20.
http://www.polyjoule.org/urbanconcept
I would think making the rear wheel spats/diffusers hinged or out of a flexible material would be easy enough to do.
EDIT-2:
A road going car with similar design approach.
https://www.riversimple.com/the-tech...-hydrogen-car/
If one were to look at the diffuser articles I posted links to and understood the vortex entrapment principals, many other options to the 2.8 degree flat bottom could become apparent. Fixated on a single concept is just one way to go, opening up your mind to other possibilities is invaluable. Just my opinion.