It's that time of year once again; after spending the afternoon at the Chicago Auto Show yesterday, here's the state of aerodynamic devices for the 2018 model year.
Grill Blocks
Grill blocks are becoming common, and there is now the potential for owners of some cars to install a factory-blocked grill from a related submodel. Example: the BMW 750 has open kidney grills, while the 740 has completely blocked grills. The Buick Regal TourX, essentially a Regal wagon, uses an interesting, partially blocked upper grill:
Ioniq hybrid owners could swap in the grill from the Ioniq EV, which is a thing of beauty:
The regular Ioniq, which I had looked at in Indianapolis last month, has what appears to be a completely blocked grill as well; closer inspection showed that there are actually two moveable slats on either side of the emblem.
Pretty slick; most manufacturers just put the shutters behind an open grill. The only other OEM I've seen with visible moveable slats is Mercedes.
Wheels
Low-drag wheel designs continue their two-tone crusade, likely in the name of consumer acceptance. Some of the standouts were, again, the Ioniq:
...and Sonata plug-in:
Runner-up: the Insight protoype:
Air Curtains
The indisputable winner of the air curtain game is Hyundai. Every single one of their models--sedan, hatchback, CUV, or SUV, from the $15,000 Accent on up--has front wheel air curtains.
Two full-size trucks now use them, the Ford F-150 and 2019 Chevrolet Silverado. The Ford is the only vehicle to use a horizontal inlet:
The Silverado's curtains are HUGE. Sorry, no pictures--it was on a rotating dais behind a glass partition, so I couldn't get close enough.
One of the few manufacturers to not use air curtains at all is, surprisingly, Toyota.
Acura's booth had a couple of race cars. Their LMP car had this interesting variation on the air curtain ahead of the rear wheel:
Also note the annular ring on that wheel face.
Wheel Air Dams
Wheel air dams are now ubiquitous, but still with wide variety in size, shape, and placement. The Toyota Corolla, one of the older designs here, still has a previous-generation style air dam, straight across and with an inboard cutout:
Most cars now have at least some curvature in the air dam, like this one on the 2018 Prius Two:
Air dams varied from the absurdly small (Mercedes S550):
...to quite large examples, such as the Cadillac CT6:
Some have cutouts (2018 Honda Accord):
But most are solid, made of rubber or plastic.
Front and rear, a few cars had plastic or rubber fairings in addition to the dams. Porsche 911 Carrera:
The Ford C-Max Energi has quite large rear fairings; I've ordered a set and will be adding them to my Prius, in addition to modifying the front air dam design to extend downward and curve around the wheel opening.
Some cars had no wheel air dams at all. 2018 Camry:
The only pickup manufacturer using rear air dams is GM/Chevrolet, which has quite prominent dams on both the Colorado and Silverado/Sierra:
Underbody
Speaking of pickups, none have underbody paneling. Instead, all the trucks I looked at have prominent air dams. 2019 Ram 1500:
I checked all 4 of them at the show, and none had the lower-able dam.
Very few cars had front air dams, with some notable exceptions. The Audi S5 and TT had interesting partial dams:
Some GM cars still have air dams, like the Cruze hatchback:
At the rear, most cars now also have fairings. Here's the Mercedes S550 again:
Toyota's vehicles all have vanes for stability. 2018 Sienna:
But, the winner for best underbody treatment is...surprise! The 2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid had by far the smoothest underside:
Air intakes
I made a point of checking out the 2018 Mirage's "cold air" intake. Turns out it's just a pipe sticking forward in the engine bay:
The 2018 Prius and Prius Prime had what looked like an intake routed to take in air before the radiator. Closer inspection revealed that it is, in fact, completely blocked inside and taking in warm engine bay air:
I'm not sure why it's routed to that spot. The hood is sealed there with a rubber gasket, so it's not taking in cold air.
Other odds and ends:
Toyota Prius Prime spoiler and rear glass
Porsche Panamera rear fairing
Acura LMP car rear wheel pressure relief
Hyundai Ioniq EV tail lights
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