Aerocivic - how to drop your Cd from 0.31 to 0.17

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by Midniteoyl

Think you guys could actually try and make these mods look good? That civic that started this thread, while prolly a real gas saver, is prolly the ugliest thing I've seen... C'mon, at least try...

Sir, You seem to be a prat of the first order however in the interests of missionary work amongst the hard of thinking please may I enquire as to how you think the Aerocivic, a vehicle built with the sole purpose of maximising aero efficiency, may be improved.

The floor is yours. Express yourself with the full ability of your vocabulary, the razor sharp blade of your wit and the deep thinking of your inner studies. Let not the voices of derision hamper your creativity.

Instead move yourself above the slow and dumwitted thoughts of others and describe in detail how you would have tackled this most noble of objects - to ride the very wind in our desire to travel across this earth.

Or, well, the alternative is eternal damnation in the portion of hell reserved for "what might have been", or in this case "what wants to have been but has never".

I think the bible states this as the "seed scattered upon stony ground", there never to establish and grow.

That would be sad, so sad.

So what say you sir ?

EDIT - Otherwise bog off.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by Midniteoyl

Think you guys could actually try and make these mods look good? That civic that started this thread, while prolly a real gas saver, is prolly the ugliest thing I've seen... C'mon, at least try...

Basjoos / Mike clearly wasn't interested in good looks, but in something that worked, however crude.

It just proves that mods don't need to look good or smooth to be effective.
It's often said that better is the worst enemy of good.

Going for the ultra clean look means it takes ages to finish mods - quite a few folks have gone down that route.

[2003protege]

Originally Posted by Midniteoyl

Think you guys could actually try and make these mods look good? That civic that started this thread, while prolly a real gas saver, is prolly the ugliest thing I've seen... C'mon, at least try...

I submit the simplest response to this is:

Mike did this mod for himself; he doesn't necessarily care what you think.

[jakobnev]

Basjoos - the Picasso of ecomods.

[basjoos]

Originally Posted by Cd

Prolly ? Is that a new word that everyone uses now-a-days ?

Nice way to introduce yourself - insult someones hard work.

I actually agree with you though.
While there would be little aerodynamic benefit, the least that could be done to make the car look better would be to smooth the caulking in the seams. When applied, it would have taken mere seconds to do.
I emailed Jim about this and he stated that he intended to re-do it when he gets around to it.


Car Aerodynamics - Modifications - Hot Rod Magazine

According to this source, quote : Rarely if ever are body-panel seams so large and misaligned that smoothing them with duct tape will make a measurable difference in Cd. We tried it on our Camaro, and it did nothing."

This was done on an old 1980 Camaro, back when body gaps misaligned body panels were quite bad.

That is a photo of the Coroplast prototype nose along with the hood attachment points for the second windshield I was testing at the time. Of course it is butt ugly with those slabs of Coroplast. But it's a prototype, for God's sake, and isn't meant to be pretty since research, rather than aesthetics, was the goal. Its prettier now since it has been reskinned with aluminum sheet, but the sheet has picked up a few dents over the years and the 100,000+ miles I have driven since I replaced the Coroplast, including 2 deer collisions and a dent from an impact with the sign post (cold salt-covered road + warm humid air = slick saline covered road, but just at the intersections where they sprayed the salt, the unsalted parts of the road were bone dry under a clear starry sky). If the sheet was still serviceable, I just beat out the dent and reused it rather than replacing it with a fresh aluminum sheet.

In the time that some have spent working on the ultra clean look, I've put over 160,000 miles on my aeromodded car, had 2 deer collisions, been rear ended, hit a sign post as mentioned above, had one front skirt knocked off when I dodged a truck suddenly spinning out on the wet road in front of me, had another front skirt knocked off by another truck on a narrow section of dirt road. After each of these accidents, I only had to spend a few hours or days of work before I had the car back on the road. My car is a daily driver, not a show car, and it looks it, but it proves that aeromods are not just for the rarified world of concept cars, but are practical and can withstand the rough and tumble of everyday driving in all weather conditions.

[brucepick]

Basjoos,

Very well put.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by basjoos

That is a photo of the Coroplast prototype nose

Do you maybe have any newer pics of the aerocivic with the cleaned-up looks ?

[Fat Charlie]

A one-off that isn't made by some college's art department is going to look kind of rough. So what? I'm sure if he were planning to sell Basjoos' Aero Kits then he'd polish things up a little more.

[basjoos]

[gone-ot]

...sometimes, it's FUNCTION over FORM--instead of the typical FORM over FUNCTION--when svelte-looks have to take second-place to first-rate performance!

...and, if the passengers don't "like" the looks, they can always ride with their eyes closed--many do in my car, but it's the driving-style, not the aerodynamic esthetics they're afraid of (ha,ha)!