Quote:
Originally Posted by JulianEdgar
Not such a good post. Starting to use:
- rules of thumb (eg wheel fairings can reduce drag by 70 per cent and then applying that figure to another body)
- make conceptual jumps from theory to real road cars (eg solar race cars are not practical road cars)
- develop strawman arguments (who said aerodynamics was a black art?).
|
Further to this, I would add: this continued insistence on reporting "Hucho says..." (this or that gross oversimplification) really rubs me the wrong way.
Guess what? Hucho is still alive and working. If you want to know what he says,
you can ask him! I decided to do that a couple months ago, and he was gracious enough to reply. When I asked him specifically about using his textbook as a guide to reduce the drag of our cars--and remember, as Ecomodders our focus is necessarily limited to modification of existing cars since we aren't OEMs--he wrote back:
Quote:
|
The book is written by engineers working in the development of cars produced in large volume. Low air drag is one target. Many others like styling, safety, cost, etc. have to be observed.
|
(emphasis his)
He did not mention boat-tailing; he cautioned that "a posteriory attached details" were not the focus of his work. He advised that I would find the papers published on his website, aerowolf.de, more useful. He also said that "cD = 0.20 seems to be possible for cars manufactured in large volume. And that’s it."
That's what Hucho says. If you want to argue that we should all follow the template, fine. Go right ahead, but don't couch it in an appeal to authority. Otherwise you are putting words in someone else's mouth who isn't here to defend him or herself. Own your own words unless you proffer a direct quote with a proper citation.
Rant over.