Quote:
Originally Posted by AeroMcAeroFace
"What I am saying that template leads to lowest drag coefficient"
it just doesn't though, low drag yes, lowest, no.
A solar car having drag coefficient of 0.08 is evidence that lower drag coefficients than the template are possible.
The development process is irrelevant if they get a lower drag coefficient. |
There's no question as to lower drag coefficients.
Consideration of the template involved the context of a 4-to-5 passenger family car, with an overall height of, say, 55.5-inches, like an Optima, Sonata, Camry, Accord, Jetta class vehicle. Room for luggage. Conventional, upright seating position.
Some of the solar cars are already as large as a 1990s, Chevrolet Caprice Classic /Buick Roadmaster. To 'inflate' them, to large enough dimensions in order to facilitate what is now a full-recumbent occupant, into a conventional seating position would require dimensions as large as a UPS deliver truck.
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Delft Technical University's 2015 Ecorunner- V registered Cd 0.0512.
This remarkably low Cd must be understood within the context of a 'small', 'slow', sub-critical Reynolds number, laminar profile, with recumbent driver.
If also scaled to a height of 55.5-inches, the length would run to 259-inches, without any possibility of an 'extensible' tail section, due to it's particular architectural / geometric demands. Few garages could ingest it.
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Again, there's no dispute as to the ability to find lower drag forms, however, translating any particular form into a passenger vehicle opens up a large host of challenges, never seen on a closed-course SAE or SHELL event, or escorted, controlled-access World Solar Challenge-related, public thoroughfare.