The Aerocivic gets a web site - Aerocivic.com

[TestDrive]

Originally Posted by basjoos

But, unless you were inattentive to what was coming up ahead of you on the road, you would never hit a deer that was facing directly towards or away from the vehicle.

That's tempting but perhaps unwarranted conclusion.

They don't all cross the road at 90* and some small percentage of those racing across the road notice your headlights and make sharp adjustment to their line of travel.

Also, one may be highly attentive to the road ahead and yet simply traveling faster (45 mph) than is safe for conditions (a herd of 15-20 deer wandering aimlessly across the roadway just at the far side of the sharp crest of a small hill). I've never hit a deer under those circumstances, but the opportunity has presented itself.

[basjoos]

Originally Posted by MaxMatt

Different question:

basjoos, what is the road clearance of the AeroCivic? Did You lower it(How?) or are that just the panels that sit low?

I haven't lowered it, the panels that make up the catamaran flow control system around the wheels extend down below the frame of the car. The underside of the car is at the stock 8" of ground clearance.

[basjoos]

Originally Posted by TestDrive

That's tempting but perhaps unwarranted conclusion.

They don't all cross the road at 90* and some small percentage of those racing across the road notice your headlights and make sharp adjustment to their line of travel.

Also, one may be highly attentive to the road ahead and yet simply traveling faster (45 mph) than is safe for conditions (a herd of 15-20 deer wandering aimlessly across the roadway just at the far side of the sharp crest of a small hill). I've never hit a deer under those circumstances, but the opportunity has presented itself.

Around here, I've never seen deer run along the road, either on the pavement or the shoulder. They are always either crossing it or having a social interaction with other deer or or next to the road. As soon as they see the car they head straight towards the nearest woods. One fall I came across two bucks getting ready to fight over a doe. The doe and one buck were on one side of the road, while the other buck was on his way across the road to pick a fight. All three scattered when I drove up. The problem comes when they are in a field with the woods on the other side of the road and your car surprises them. They then make a bee line for the woods, crossing the road at full gallop. I've never seen a deer make a sharp change in direction while on pavement, as their hooves just don't have the traction to do this. I've seen numbers of startled deer skittering their hooves on the asphalt (sort of like running in place) while trying to accelerate from a standstill or a slow walk when your car appears on the scene.

Of course if you are traveling and going around corners faster than is safe for conditions, then you are asking for an accident, be it from deer or from that windfall tree that laying across the road just past the blind curve. The same goes for overrunning your headlight coverage at night.

[TestDrive]

Originally Posted by basjoos

Around here, I've never seen deer run along the road, either on the pavement or the shoulder. They are always either crossing it or having a social interaction with other deer or or next to the road. As soon as they see the car they head straight towards the nearest woods.

<snip>

Of course if you are traveling and going around corners faster than is safe for conditions, then you are asking for an accident, be it from deer or from that windfall tree that laying across the road just past the blind curve. The same goes for overrunning your headlight coverage at night.

I've never come up on deer running parallel to the road either, but they don't always cross it at a 90* angle either - 45* is just about as common.
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If the buck's line of travel (running to the doe it has scented across the road) is as indicated above and it reaches the shoulder of the road a little a head of your car (traveling 35-45 mph), more than 90% of the time it will change it's direction of travel and go back down into the ditch. Some percentage of the time it will not change it's line of travel. A smaller percentage of the time it will marginally change its direction - as if it thinks it's going to be able to out run you.

That you have not seen this behavior probably has a lot to do with the differences in terrain. Here on the prairie, there are no trees unless someone planted them. You'll find a windrowed copse of trees about every 1-3 miles or so along the road. During the day the deer like to bed down in them. At night you general find them quite far from these little groupings of trees.

The roads generally run along straight grid lines and any curves in the road are few and very far between. Given that and the lack of trees you might think that it would be easy to spot the deer. But the deer don't like to be seen and hang out in low spots (like the ditches along side the road). The road's although paved and laid out along nice straight lines tend to follow the up and down lay of the land rather closely. Ditches are deepest in the troughs between hill tops and shallowest at the top of hills. Naturally, that is where farmer's like to put their field access gates, so there is often a pull-out for the deer in the ditch to hide behind as you top the hill. Unless you're prepared to take some risk, you'd have to drive at about 20 mph for most of the 150 mile route. The people that publish the paper don't get it to me in time to allow that and still meet the delivery times promised in my contract.

[basjoos]

You're living in the area where the native range of white tails and mule deer overlap. These two deer species have different behavior patterns, so I wonder if some of the behavior differences we are noting are mule deer vs. white tailed deer, as well as the deer's behaviors in response to a different terrain and degree of forestation. Around here it is hilly and mostly forested, so the deer go into the fields to graze and hightail it into the nearest woods when startled.

[tasdrouille]

How did a thread about an aero car turned into as deer behavioral discussion is beyond me.

You could argue all day about how that nose cone is affecting deer impact, but it'll always be anecdotal evidence, which isn't worth much.

[TestDrive]

The vast majority I see are white tails. The "try to out run you" behavior is pretty uncommon, but it does happen. Haven't really paid attention to why. Maybe something to do with how shallow the ditches are or the age of the deer. Probably also has something to do with the very low density of human population. At least 40 miles of my route normally doesn't see even a single vehicle (besides mine) from about 1:00 AM until 6:00 AM.

[McTimson]

Is anyone else thinking about Monty Python right now?

It could be carried by an African swallow!
Oh yea, an African swallow maybe, but not a European swallow, that's my point!

[basjoos]

Originally Posted by McTimson

Is anyone else thinking about Monty Python right now?

It could be carried by an African swallow!
Oh yea, an African swallow maybe, but not a European swallow, that's my point!

Unlike swallows, deer have the ability to total your car and possibly kill you when they collide with your car, so it makes sense to study and have a knowledge of their likely behavior patterns. If this allows you to predict what a deer is likely to do next, then you might be able to avoid a collision with them and save your car and your life. Sort of along the lines of "know your enemy".

[Curly1]

Not to be rude but I could care less about the how the car performs during a deer collision or deer behavior.
I do try to be careful when I see deer on the road and slow down some but if it happens it happens and I will deal with it. I try to avoid all collisions deer, cars or what ever. I just do not design and build a car for deer collisions.

The important thing about this thread is Basjoos web site and I like it. The web site makes a very compelling arguement for better aerodynamics from the factories. It proves what can be done and that it works. Now the major manufacturors need to take this information and run with it to produce a vehicle that is more aerodynamic and performs better.

The Aptera is further proof and I think (hope) these two cars have a strong effect on future designs.

I would also like to know if the car has been lowered and if it would help or hurt its performance. On one hand it makes the frontal area smaller but it also gives less room for the air to flow under the vehicle smoothly. So I would be curious to know if it helps or hurts this car to lower it.

Many people think that the manufacturors build the car to perform best and it is best not to make modifications. I dissagree, I think the manufacturors design the cars to fit as many uses as possible. Have a good general all around vehicle with few drawbacks. Basjoos has proven that if you design it more for a single purpose that you can definatly improve it over stock.

I also think that manufacturors and customers tend to be more conservative in what they like as far as looks. The manufacturors do not want to build a car that does not sell well. With that said the time is right for a few completly different more radical designs.
If the manufacturors design and build a car similar to Basjoos car many may not like the look but the proven performance would definatly help sales. I think it would start making a change in what we think is a beautiful car.
I would consider a new well built car with a similar design to Basjoos car and I think many here would as well.

As for the performance of a deer hit well that just is not an important selling point or issue to me.