Random Aerodynamic Oddity of the Day Thread

[freebeard]

Here's another RETRO CAR video:

Alamagny Lozenge: The Strangest Prototype Ever Built in France

[j-c-c]

Not sure if I met that car on the road if I could definitively claim who passed who.

[Logic]

You did say: "Random Aerodynamic Oddity"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXg-qoRN0co

I like the little 'Saying' at the beginning of this video. Apt atm...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E77j1imdhQ

[freebeard]

www.autocarindia.com/auto-features/feature-driving-the-bujji-movie-car-from-kalki-2898-ad-431884

This is a car built for the promotions of the movie Kalki 2898 AD, and it was unlike anything I had ever seen. It’s a gargantuan machine: over six metres long, three metres wide, and two metres tall. It gets two hub-less wheels in the front, and the one at the rear can move on a vertical and horizontal axis.

[freebeard]

From the folks that brought you the Chevy Goliath ad:

2025 Ford Lump - AI TV ad

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by freebeard

In 1936 Ford heard about Fuller's Dymaxion Transporters with rear flathead engine and rear wheel steering, so they CYA'd with this patent. Rear engine Ford with four-wheel steering.

So you mean Ford designed its own Beetle somehow...

[freebeard]

It buried in my backups, but Hemmings SIA (apparently no longer online) showed a 1940 chassis with a rear flathead. The conclusion was it was cobbled together and leaked to mislead other manufacturers. I saw it recently, maybe I'll remember where.

According to Wikipedia there're the 1932 Maroon Car prototype, the Dymaxion and the Gregory microcar.

[freebeard]

news.mit.edu: Want to design the car of the future? Here are 8,000 designs to get you started.

Sounds good right? Ackchyually, three body styles from two manufacturers with 26 parameters, then those permutated up to the 8,000 number.

To build a dataset of car designs with physically accurate representations of their aerodynamics, the researchers started with several baseline 3D models that were provided by Audi and BMW in 2014. These models represent three major categories of passenger cars: fastback (sedans with a sloped back end), notchback (sedans or coupes with a slight dip in their rear profile) and estateback (such as station wagons with more blunt, flat backs). The baseline models are thought to bridge the gap between simple designs and more complicated proprietary designs, and have been used by other groups as a starting point for exploring new car designs.

Library of cars

In their new study, the team applied a morphing operation to each of the baseline car models. This operation systematically made a slight change to each of 26 parameters in a given car design, such as its length, underbody features, windshield slope, and wheel tread, which it then labeled as a distinct car design, which was then added to the growing dataset. Meanwhile, the team ran an optimization algorithm to ensure that each new design was indeed distinct, and not a copy of an already-generated design. They then translated each 3D design into different modalities, such that a given design can be represented as a mesh, a point cloud, or a list of dimensions and specs.

So no outlying features such as external ducts, etc.

[kach22i]

McMurtry Spéirling Pure: Full Top Gear Test Track Review!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPZxcfglU2Q

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by freebeard

It buried in my backups, but Hemmings SIA (apparently no longer online) showed a 1940 chassis with a rear flathead. The conclusion was it was cobbled together and leaked to mislead other manufacturers.

Maybe a testbed for something else. I guess you know about a Ford urban transit bus from the '40s with a rear-mounted flathead V8.