Any one up on Chevette/H bodies?

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

While the Isuzu Gemini switched from RWD to FWD, the Chevette didn't follow suit.

Originally Posted by JSH

The Chevette was built on the RWD T-Body platform and was made from 1976 - 1987 in the USA. It continued on for Latin America until 1998

From '73 to '93 the Chevette was available in Brazil, and at least until '95 it was still assembled from CKD kits in places such as Colombia. The last model-year for a Chevette derivative in Brazil AFAIK was '95 for the Chevy 500 trucklet.

[aerohead]

At breakfast I was looking at the 1981 Opel TECH-1 concept car, designed by Erhard Schnell, based on GM's T-Car platform ( Kadett ).
There's not a great deal of data available for the car but they mentioned:
* front fascia
* panoramic windshield that blended into the A-pillars, killing vortices there
* all-flush glass
* not mentioned is the Aeroback rear roofline with small notchback deck
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I believe that the '81 model Kadett was Cd 0.52, and fell to Cd 0.475 for the 1982 model year.
At Cd 0.235, the TECH-1 would only have 45% of the Kadett's drag ( at equal frontal area ).
It's fineness ratio is close to that of the Cd 0.23 Tesla Model Y, Cd 0.235 Toyota FT-Bh concept of 2012, and Cd 0.235 Renault EOLAB concept of 2014.

[freebeard]

For the lurkers: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Tech_1



What's up with that rear wheel?

[Piotrsko]

If that's down the street at the museum which the picture suggests, I could go look, but, it appears to be a loose tweeked hubcap. Sometimes the restorers think stuff is significant in the broken condition.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by freebeard

For the lurkers: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Tech_1

Unlike the Chevette, it's FWD, as it was based on the underpinnings of its direct replacement.

[aerohead]

From Dr. Gino Sovran's, 'Change in fuel economy from a prescribed percentage change in CdA for a representative automobile...', SAE Paper 830304, Feb.28-Mar. 4, 1983, Fig.-3, pg. 7:
I did an extrapolation of his drag table, and it looks like, if one were to get into the weeds, streamlining the Chevette into 'Hucho-territory' ( Cd 0.133 ), you might experience a 72% drag reduction, and 68-mpg HWY, based on the old 55-MPH National Speed Limit, according to the GM Research Laboratories.
All variables held constant, except CdA.
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[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by aerohead

streamlining the Chevette into 'Hucho-territory' ( Cd 0.133 ), you might experience a 72% drag reduction, and 68-mpg HWY, based on the old 55-MPH National Speed Limit, according to the GM Research Laboratories

With stock gearing?

[freebeard]

Better aero wants taller gears.

[aerohead]

It would require gear-matching, to return the engine to the same' island' on the BSFC map.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Better aero wants taller gears.

Better aero, eventually matched to a lower dead weight. Yet sometimes switching to a different tire size leads to the very same effect...