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Old 01-28-2009, 07:23 AM   #9 (permalink)
lunarhighway
Master EcoModder
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: belgium
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vectra a - '95 Opel Vectra GLS
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lowering a car might help in two ways by lowering the car you expose less of the tire so you effectively decrease frontal area, although only just a little... you also cover more of the tire... you may have noticed a lot of cars have airdams that are lower in front of the tire than in the middle, the calibra is on of the earliest cars where this design was mentioned but a lot of modern cars more or less have this design some even have small plastic dams in front of the wheels. it's not entirely clear to my what the effect of shielding the front of the tire actually is, but if factory cars have this, i'm sure it does something.

lowering the car also reduces the ammount of air under the car... this might help to stabilise the air and it also creates a little downforce...

recently a lot of carmakers have introduced "eco" versions of their vehicles... i think VW more or less started the trent with their bluemotion lineup.

one of the things mentioned with most of these cars is that they sit a little lower than the standard model.
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