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Phil, I believe we actually met briefly. I remember your boat-tailed crx parked in front of the Industrial Engineering Building. It had a nice cooling inlet right under the front bumper in that it projected frontal area (instead of being a bottom breather). I actually can't take any credit for the aeroshell. I remember seeing the aeroshell model add-on sitting around, so I think some other senior design class tested it a semester or two earlier.
I don't know where Pat is now, he would have had to stay at Tech a long time to still be there. In addition, I was really disappointed to find out that TTU ME converted their big tow tank to lab space, but I understand if it was just sitting idle it would be hard to justify maintaining it. It makes me feel old since that tow tank had just been finished when I got my MSME.
Concrete: just looking at the photo, I would give you an A+. I don't see any problems with the contour of the surfaces. The Tech prototype just had a fiberglass surface on top (that why it was referred to as a "wing") and some exposed square tube framework on the sides. The cab extension and the partial bed cover were not conceived simultaneously. I believe the cab extension appeared first. One of the partial bed cover prototypes was just a sheet of plywood. It was a surprise that the two devices worked synergistically (like adding 2 and 2 and getting 5). Some Tech students would drive the modified pick-ups on the highway that circled Lubbock to look for milage changes. I believe I heard that they had trouble controlling the test drives enough to see clear results.
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