[aerohead]

Originally Posted by JulianEdgar

In 2006 in that article I was writing for the readers of AutoSpeed, and many of them still drove cars where yes, separation occurred at the end of the roof on notchbacks. An example is the 1986-1988 Commodore VL turbo, a car that (in modified form) was then still very popular with readers. That car had a roof / rear window angle that dated back to 1978. In fact, the VL Group A Walkinshaw remains one of the best aero specials ever built, and to achieve attached flow on the bootlid, they had to raise it massively.

The reason that I nominate 1990 as the date from which notchback airflow largely changed is that by that year, most manufacturers were producing cars that had much shallower angle rear windows. (Of course, that refers to cars first produced from that year, not carryover old models.) Here in Australia that included the VN Commodore and EA Falcon, and the same happened elsewhere.

And of course, rear window angles have got shallower, and boot lids higher, ever since - such that today, a notchback's airflow is often closer to a fastback.

There is no doubt that when old aero references (and they include more than just Hucho 2nd edition) describe notchback flow, they are usually describing something quite different to today's notchback cars - and to the vast majority of notchbacks of the last 30 years.

What would we make of an article, also about the Mitsubishi Lancer VGs, in 2014, in which they're remarking in the year 2014, that ' One of the main reasons of aerodynamic drag for sedan vehicles is the flow separation near the vehicle's rear end.' which was published in the International Journal of Mechanical & Mechanatronics Engineering IJMME-IJENS Vol: 14 No. 02 ?