35 MPG 1966 Chevelle

[spacemanspif]

The air dam will be the best bang for the buck and considering how crazy older cars are on the under side, I'd think that a belly pan would be a huge undertaking. On pro-touring there is a guy who posted pics of his Chevelle with a dam and it looks good. I think he does standing mile, or top speed events from the skimming I did.


Custom Chevelle Air Dam Help

Don't let the aero discourage you; I really don't think you are in that bad a shape. You could block off the entire grill and mount the air dam under the core support, converting it to "bottom cooling" but it might look a little goofy. I wonder what kind of benefit could be had from a pro-stock type spoiler??

[67-ls1]

Thanks for the photo. That air dam is what I'm thinking. And possibly skirts along the side between the wheels.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by 2000mc

block heater (convenient hidden plug-in would be the tricky bit though)

Easy.

[67-ls1]

I live in Northern California and park indoors every night. I don't think I will need a coolant heater.

[jcp123]

Originally Posted by 67-ls1

I live in Northern California and park indoors every night. I don't think I will need a coolant heater.

I disagree. I lived in the South Bay long enough to know that while you have pretty mild temperatures in Walnut Creek, your nightly lows get cool enough for a block heater to matter. I had a low here in east Texas of 39 last night and a high in the 50s. My FE got slaughtered. A block heater would have gone a long, long way. +30*f coolant temp when you start the car makes a BIG difference.

[Sven7]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

I wonder if an XR4Ti type spoiler could be functional and look decent?

Yes, and no.

Originally Posted by 67-ls1

Thanks for the photo. That air dam is what I'm thinking. And possibly skirts along the side between the wheels.

That sounds like it'll work great. There's a guy on here with a red Civic VX with the thread title including "JDM styling" I think. He wrote up how to make some really kickass side skirts.

Originally Posted by Hypermiler1995

Be sure to add a lip onto the air dam, as it would force air to go off the sides of the air dam and would keep the air from going under, very important if you don't use a belly pan (though I would if I were you).

You can also consider a mirror delete, and maybe some small kamm pieces on the trunk, and maybe the top of the back window, you could try VGs here too (test it though).

Be wary of this post. The lip may hurt or may help depending on car. It'll give you more downforce- that's for sure. I have used lawn edging air dams on three different vehicles and it works fine. There's a little lip, but that's not why you use it. Land speed cars don't use a lip (see the top of this page).

Looks like you already decided against VG's which is good, because they rarely work anyway.

[67-ls1]

Any lip I would add to the lower leading edge would be to strengthen it rather then to act as a splitter. I also plan on using the center area of the dam for air intake to the radiator after blocking all but the center area of the grill.

[Sven7]

Awesome. Carry on.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by 67-ls1

Sven7,
Wow! That is a very cool rendition of an aero 66 Chevelle.
Unfortunetly, mine will not be near as aero as your drawing. I can do the front air dam and grill block and even the side skirts, but the rear glass is not in the budget/skill level.
I did see recently that on Smokey Yunick's 1967 Chevelle he had installed vent flaps just behind the rear window glass, forward of the trunk lid seam. I'm not sure if this was to vent the interior or vent from underneath the car, but he was dumping air into this low pressure area from somewhere.
I might be able to sneak in tricks like that.
Dennis

There is a Studebaker which ran at Bonneville,that had tubes which ran from under the car,through the back seat area,to outlets behind the back light.It was an attempt to spoil lift without altering the contour of the car.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by sgtlethargic

Chaz's comments seem to contradict what I believe Aerohead has commented on before: that as long as the front end isn't too bad, the rear template aero stuff will work well. So, I plan on doing a 61 Ranchero and am wondering if I could get to 40, maybe even 50 mpg highway with a 1.6L Pinto engine and aero mods.

*The issue with radii would need a historical context.
*A 1960s car,without modification, would not qualify for Hucho's (or other's) caveat,that a mid-1980's production car would already have enough radius for attached flow past the windshield.

*In this adapted image from F.K.Schenkel,of 1977,you can see the enormous pressure spikes around the body,due to the body contour.
*There would be separation at the hood leading edge,then reattachment.This would rob the stream from critical energy needed later on the aft-body.

*Even with the 1963 Corvette Stingray,we never see a positive pressure on top of the body once we leave the windshield,but we do have semi-attached flow.

*With a mid-30s Jaray Combinationform,Cd 0.19,we have enough front rounding to prevent separation in the forebody,and also,enough elevational,and plan-form pressure recovery to produce positive pressure over rear.

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If the Chevelle had a cleanup at the nose (at least as good as the 1975 VW Golf/Rabbit) we'd be on the way.But it would cease to LOOK like a Chevelle.Maybe!

*So Chaz is correct due to the time frame in which the Chevy was produced.