[TELVM]

I was practising archaeology throughout this aerodynamics forvm when much to my delight (I'm the lucky owner of not one but two Calibras ) I found this old post. I can't help but resucitate it .

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Launched in 1989, it was designed by an American who headed GM design in Europe.

Wayne Cherry, in collaboration with Opel Designstudios' then chief design engineer Erhard Schnell.

At the time, it was apparently the most aerodynamic production car available anywhere.

Correct, world record most aerodynamic production car in 1989, and for a decade afterwards until the Insight arrived.

... the designers paid a lot of attention to optimizing the details ...

Info on that towards the end of this pdf:

... the 16v engine needed more cooling, which meant a bigger hole in the front ...

That's an incorrect statement I've seen everywhere in the net, probably the result of blind quoting by uninformed journalists without first hand experience on the car. All Calibra versions have identical front bumpers with equal size openings for cooling.

... and a worse Cd of 0.29 (other contributors to the change were probably things like wider tires, chunky rims, etc).

Tyres are the sole culprits (195/60-14 in the 2.0i versvs 205/55-15 or 205/50-16 in the 16V/V6/Turbo).

The reviewer also notes that the sharply raked A pillars make ingress/egress more difficult.

I guess the gentleman who wrote that was more used to SUVs and minivans than sports cars.

One serious shortcoming is ventilation. Like many streamlined cars there's no through-flow of air, and the only way to get that is to have the fan on full almost all the time.

Yeah, he was definitely not in top form and suffered abnormally high perspiration . No such issues in the Calibra, the ventilation works as in any other car.

(My observation: they also affect outward visibility.)

On the contrary, the Calibra is one of the cars with better all-around visibility I've driven (excluding top-down cabrios).

One design issue that was out of place on the slick Calibra was an outward opening sunroof (the kind that slides on top of the roof, rather than inside). In the open position, it would destroy the car's Cd.

Well, it undoubtedly affects the Cd when open, but "destroys it" seems an exaggeration to me after reaching 235kmh / 146mph in the Autobahn with sunroof deployed.

These sloping windscreens also allow an awful lot of sunlight in here and it gets very hot & stuffy.

That's quite true . Also the large sloped windshield fogs more easily than other cars.







Some comparisons to get perspective (Cd x frontal area in square meters = SCd, the real value):

2000 Honda Insight: 0.25 x 1.905 = 0.47625

1989 Opel Calibra 2.0i: 0.26 x 1.93 = 0.5018

1999 Audi A2 1.2: 0.25 x 2.18 = 0.545

1997 Toyota Prius: 0.26 x 2.16 = 0.5616





Pictures of my babies. The 2.0i (17 years & 223000km / 140000 miles and still in top form):






The Turbo AWD:






(I know I know, guilty as charged, it's crazy to have two similar cars in the same colour )




At your service for any quest for more information on these streamlined cars .