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-   -   1/2-tonneau/1/2-aero-shell (https://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/1-2-tonneau-1-2-aero-shell-18578.html)

aerohead 08-20-2011 01:57 PM

1/2-tonneau/1/2-aero-shell
 
One of the members asked about this.I'd never submitted it and there are no photos of it in the archives so I decided to do an independent thread for it.
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Before I did the aero-shell,and while John Gilkison still owned the T-100 I had one of those 'what if' moments,wondering what would happen if you combined GM's patented 1/2-tonneau with 1/2 of an aero-shell.
I talked with Gilkison over the phone and he relayed some measurement data from the truck.
He was already running a 1/2-tonneau so I merely constructed a blister which embodied only the back half of an aero-shell.
When it was complete,I strapped it to the hood of the CRX and drove it north to Ten Killer Lake in Oklahoma where he was vacationing.
We screw-attached it from below,caulked the seam,and that was it.
While John drove,I busied myself in the bed of the truck with a ski-pole tuft wand,watching the airflow as we circled the lake boundary.Flow was good.
The bummer was that he had not considered rear vision and it definitely created a blind spot.( Later when Bob Parsons did his Chevy truck we held the height at 'mirror line of sight' height ).
After some good swimming I departed.
After the drive home,dodging a tornado on I-40,John reported a definite mpg increase.And after suffering about a year with the blind-spot the blister was retired to the landfill.
John said it was good for 8% mpg HWY.That would be a 16% drag reduction,or Cd 0.37 for the truck,down from Cd 0.44.
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I located the photos this morning and Al says he can get them scanned today,so I'll post those asap.

kach22i 08-20-2011 03:42 PM

Sounds interesting..............waiting for those photos.:)

slowmover 08-20-2011 10:05 PM

Thanks for this thread. And Ten Killer is a beautiful place.

aerohead 08-27-2011 04:07 PM

photos doubtful today
 
Two Saturdays in a row Al is swamped.Store closes in 55-minutes. Doesn't look good as far as photos go.:(

aerohead 09-03-2011 04:37 PM

Photos
 
3 Attachment(s)
Here are 3-views of the critter:

dkruitz 09-03-2011 06:22 PM

Interesting! It sure seems to aid with visibility compared to a full aero cover.

aerohead 09-19-2011 11:20 PM

visibility
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by dkruitz (Post 259460)
Interesting! It sure seems to aid with visibility compared to a full aero cover.

Gilkison never overcame the issue of direct rear vision.Backup cameras would help today,but they were barely on the market at that time.


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