0.19 CD Merc (Mercedes 2015 Concept IAA -- tons of active aerodynamics)
 

Had not heard of this one before. Looks pretty neat! Active aerodynamics are a thing we will see in the near future I think.

Merc's incredible IAA concept is the world

http://www.topgear.com/sites/default...?itok=S0pS4DvX

Active...
 

...air curtains, vents, spoilers, even wheels and boattail!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ExPLhdRCbk

Wow! Sexy fun brain candy.

Meanwhile, over at Toyota... :D

Noticed at Jalopnik's article on the car: even the rocker panels have a full length active flap that effectively becomes a side skirt.

Another shorter video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq31JNylDgc

Says that the tail extension lowers the Cd from 0.225 to 0.19

And the best illustrated comment so far at Jalopnik:

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/...2399276323.jpg

How in the hell do you make the wheels flatten out?? I can guess on everything else but a dished wheel that flattens out blows me away...

I believe that last image was just a "look how silly it is when I take it to its extreme" photoshop.

I could be wrong, but it certainly wasn't in the second (shorter) video. I'll watch the longer one now...

-soD

Looks like something Gru from Despicable Me would drive.

I remember we here at EM spoke about this very thing on our cars years ago. It's been a long while, but we had spoke of a collapsable tail section just like this.

A tail could be fashioned in such a way that it slides back into itself, or outward on rails.

The tail could deploy using a signal from the VSS. Once you get to a certain speed, it would deploy and then go back into itself for parking and such.

I'm glad to see it being done - even if just on concept cars.