An amazing streamlining of a Jeep
 

Back in January I stayed at a hotel on a work related trip and saw this show called stuntbusters that I've never heard of before. (I don't have speed channel at the house)

It had a segment on aerodynamics and they coastdown tested a Jeep along side of a Prius in stock configuration,then they gave the Jeep this aerodynamic transformation to do another coastdown run against the Prius.

The way they conducted the runs,smoke test demo and what they said was kind of silly but the body work they gave the jeep is a work of art in my humble opinion.

Soon after I saw this show,I searched for more info on this and could not find a dang thing on the internet about it.

Last night I looked again and found a video of the episode.

I did my best to grab screen shots and make images out of it but my photo editing skills are limited so apologies if they show up really crappy.

Let me try:

Here they are installing the styrofoam nose cone:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-3d...001-medium.jpg

Nose installed:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-3d...002-medium.jpg

Here the tail being installed:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-3d...003-medium.jpg

A couple of nose pics of the finished unit on the road:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-3d...eep10-0004.jpg
http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-3d...005-medium.jpg

Almost done side view:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-3d...006-medium.jpg

Along side the Prius:
They also added some roof camber which is visible here.
http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-3d...008-medium.jpg

A couple of side views:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-3d...009-medium.jpg
http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-3d...010-medium.jpg

And a tail view:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-3d...011-medium.jpg

I think she is gorgeous!

Too bad the female host of the show felt that it was necessary for her to express her opinion about it in a comment like" it is not exactly stylish!"

I think it is a hell of a lot more stylish than the rolling brick stock form but it seems like the ecomodder is the rare breed and the beauty is in the eye of the beholder! (or something like that).

If you want to watch the whole episode online,here is the link to the video..below:

You will see the horizontal bar at the bottom of the video split up to four equal segments. If you want to skip right to the aerodynamic stuff, click right in the middle of the third segment!
Video - IMDb
Enjoy!
Barna

Wow. Thanks for posting !

Interesting experiment, looks cool, but it is no longer useful as a Jeep rendering it somewhat pointless (can it turn???) and they sure spent a lot of time on the "wrong" (front) end... I wonder what the results would be without the nosecone and faux windshield?

Unfortunately, no one that watches the show will see the benefits of aero modding because the knuckleheads that did the show didn't show how that the reduction in drag increased the fuel economy
People that watch the show will just say " so they made the jeep coast farther - SO WHAT ! "
Excellent execution - failed presentation !
Personally, I loved the look and thought the final nail in the coffin for giving people a negative reaction was to have the last thing people ( mostly men undoubtedly ) see is a pretty blonde girl downing it.

well stated CD!

Shweet!!

If only they reduced its frontal area, too... ;)

Great Post. The thing I notice about this though, is the boat tails sides are WAY, WAY, too aggressive, they shred air like crazy. Do people who make these shows read up on what they're doing before creating such junk? They left at least .15 worth of Cd on the table by bringing in the sides as quickly as they did.

They are under the stereotypical misconception that if you can just make it come to a point in the back....BAM! It's Aero Baby!!

Another point here is that a 1 ton Cube will out coast a 20 lb Perfect aero shape all day, every day. What did they do to the Prius to make it weigh the same as the Jeep? (I'm guessing nothing) They even say, "Even though this Jeep weighs thousands of pounds more it easily out coasts the Prius" ooops

Still though, they did something. And anything that gets us talking is a great thing!!

Thanks 3dplane!!!! Awesome Post!!

3dplane, thank you for the still screen shots, I don't know how to do that,, so you have one on me.

Nice project, but like other's have already said, they left much on the table. However, it far exceeds anything I've actually built, so I have to give them a big applause.

Nice post - sadly I can't watch the video ('Not available in your country')

Most of these TV shows seem to get things a bit wrong - but it can only be to the good that the advantages to be gained are made visible to people...

If really aero-dynamic designs are ever to become acceptable to the general public, it will only because the common-herd have become familiar with them via TV....

(Monkey see, monkey do..!)

I'm gonna have to think more on this one. At first I thought inertia didn't matter on level ground, but now I'm thinking, "Yeah, air drag force would work against inertia."