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Old 04-16-2025, 07:31 PM   #3 (permalink)
Vman455
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Pope Pious the Prius - '13 Toyota Prius Two
Team Toyota
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90 day: 51.62 mpg (US)

Tycho the Truck - '91 Toyota Pickup DLX 4WD
90 day: 22.22 mpg (US)
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The short answer is, cars aren't 2D bodies, don't have 2D flow fields, and so any analysis that relies on 2D assumptions (e.g. looking only at a profile) won't lead you to correct conclusions about their aerodynamic drag.

For example, this car has a drag coefficient of 0.24:



And this car with an identical profile has a drag coefficient of 0.21:

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