Interesting Aerodynamic Cars (Mike Vetter's ETV, also Avion)

[freebeard]

Sometimes the front matched the back sometimes it didn't, and the sides were just connecting lines.

The Clarity concept was watered down, but upmarket there is the Lagonda electric SUV.


https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-ne...rrain-concept/

[samwichse]

I wonder at what point in lowering the roof line and making it more aerodynamic do the manufacturers ever just admit it's come back to what it really needs to be, which is a station wagon with big wheels.

Originally Posted by freebeard

Sometimes the front matched the back sometimes it didn't, and the sides were just connecting lines.

The Clarity concept was watered down, but upmarket there is the Lagonda electric SUV.


https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-ne...rrain-concept/

[RedDevil]

A Strange Rover.

[Bicycle Bob]

Originally Posted by kach22i

What's the deal with these from intake inlets at the corners?

How aero is this?

IMHO, all the front corner air intakes are nominally for brake cooling, but mainly for making people think you need racy stuff.

I've been browsing this thread, and there was some discussion about a car with a diamond wheel pattern - two middle wheels at the sides, and two fore and aft on the center line. This does give a more streamlined planform, but it is deadly for handling. In a fast corner, all the weight goes on the single outside wheel, and you lose steering.

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by Bicycle Bob

Around 1960, Detroit cars were still defined by the tool and die men, who could only manage a box with a bas-relief of what the stylists had sent them.

Wild shapes here but it was a lot of work and expense I'm sure:

[Bicycle Bob]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Wild shapes here but it was a lot of work and expense I'm sure:

The '59 Cadillac also got the maximum use from an extra pressing and a strip of chrome over the seam. There were years when Dodge had no front panel at all, just grille and trim bits.

BTW, some of the sheet metal shapes we see are there mainly as stiffening corrugations, with styling and streamlining considerations next.

One other afterthought from reading the thread through:

I was at the first race where Matt Weaver rode a long-nosed recumbent bicycle, and he was ecstatic. In a crosswind gust, the yaw worked to automatically steer the bike away from the wind, setting up the lean needed to counter it faster than hands could react. I still wouldn't ride one on public roads, though, as passing motorists won't know to leave enough space for such antics.

This is yet another factor in the complex balance that stabilizes a bicycle. Generally, we do best with a shape and CG that would make a stable glider if unguided in any or all directions. Craig Vetter put 20 lbs of lead in the front of one of his full MC fairings and loved it for the first time.

Thanks for the thread. Is this the place to post pages from a rare text on attached vortices?

[freebeard]

Thanks for the thread. Is this the place to post pages from a rare text on attached vortices?

Else a new thread. I'd read it.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by samwichse

I wonder at what point in lowering the roof line and making it more aerodynamic do the manufacturers ever just admit it's come back to what it really needs to be, which is a station wagon with big wheels.

About the time the scientists figured out the lowest drag car bodies,DuPont-General Motors Corporation adopted design obsolescence and the annual styling change.They've done everything they can to delay aerodynamics and maintain emotion-driven,rather than reason-driven products.
Just watch a Denali or Silverado commercial today,you'll get the idea.
And watch how today,they're still attempting to kill California's home-rule,rather than just build more efficient vehicles for everybody.A two-faced Janus if there ever was one.

[sendler]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Wild shapes here but it was a lot of work and expense I'm sure:

Looks like the new Prius.

[Tahoe_Hybrid]

but you can add some fins to lower wind resistance.

According to Homer Simpsion you will lower wind resistance using fins and a racing stripe