Quote:
Originally Posted by Ecky
How much it helps will depend very much on the speed you're driving. At lower speeds it won't help at all. At highway speeds you can expect a realistic 10-20% with a well made tail. On the flip side, the weight reductions from removing your hatch would be basically zero on the highway; it's largely only in stop and go traffic that weight reductions do anything measurable.
Something to think about - half a boat tail provides way more than half the benefit. What you might find much easier to design and install is a kammback, which is a truncated boat tail which can provide (I'm going to make up a number here) 50-75% of the benefit with a quarter the footprint.
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I like this idea, although it seems that it would reduce my rear visibility quite a bit. I'd have to play with it to get it to a point that I wasn't sacrificing safety.
Some quick research says that "To gain most of the effects described by Kamm, a car’s tail has to be tapered to about 40-50% of its largest cross-sectional area."
I have no idea what this means, could someone break down exactly what I should be measuring here?