Cd and blunt front ends

[NeilBlanchard]

Please stay on topic!

[Funny]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

Please stay on topic!

Indeed to stay on topic... The Benz Boxfish, the Aptera, the EV1 (not so much), design are radical aerodynamic designs that are hard to swallow in this current day-and-age's thinking. They are just weird to some people.

We have all heard from Basjoos about all the looks he gets, and anytime one of us makes an aerodynamic mod that is well, ugly..., for lack of a better word because ugliness is relative, it exposes the public to something they haven't seen before. That is one of the reasons that most cars today have the guppy mouth opening, along with a slew of other drag inducing additions to an otherwise "clean" body. They were widely accepted in the past, why not keep using them.

If we continue showing the public what aerodynamics can do for them, we'll just be the beginning of the wave of acceptance. I think that if all manufacturers were required to make an aerodynamic version of a current popular model using a body kit and selling it for an extra $1000, you would have people like us, just not as extreme, lined up at the doors waiting to buy them. In short, there is a market for radically aerodynamic vehicles, it is just in its infancy.

Rant over...

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by PA32R

A very interesting analysis. But someone is paying to have Sarah Palin become a household word and make her attractive to the voting public. Who will pay to make the Boxfish desirable? Car companies pay Madison Avenue to make the cars they already make or will make desirable, they're not motivated to spend money to make people adopt a new way of evaluating automobiles. Two years ago, it was all about power. Now, it's all about fuel efficiency. Yet it's the same vehicles being advertised.

Its a good question.For me the greater issue would be that it could be done.My opinion is that since television is the source most rely on as their window to the world,and the "vocabulary" they use to "think" about the world they live in,how public opinion is "molded" to bring the world around to a different way of thinking about cars will probably come through television.------------------------------------Since television was not "commercial" in the beginning,theoretically,television isn't reliant for it's existence on revenues generated through ads.
Additionally,since the media is licensed to operate by the federal govt. and at times has withheld news at the govt's behest,when such news was deemed potentially harmfull should the general public have access to it,the media already has a "history" of working with the govt..------------------------------------ Should the govt.truly believe that we need to get out of the Middle East,and cut our "addiction to foreign oil",and that high mpg "funny-looking" cars be part of that equation,then within 60-days,through the metamorphising majic of television,the govt' could have every patriotic American television viewer champing at the bit to dump their SUV or pickup and slip behind the wheel of some "monstrocity".It's all how they spin it.And the stations could litterally be forced to participate under threat of their FCC license.The taxpayer would ultimately pick up the check,but they pay indirectly for everthing anyway.----------------------------- When George Will and George Stephanopoulis and Diane Sawyer,and Regis Philbun,and David letterman,and Montel Williams and Oprah Winfrey and the rest get going,there'd be no stopping it.Throw in some heavyweight celebrities from the Hollywood big-screen and it would reach critical mass.------------------------ It all comes down to priorities and understanding the English language.If you're say pro-life,then you cannot accept the death your car creates in Afganistan and Iraq,and it will become your spiritual and moral imperative to get off foreign oil.however you can do it.--------------------------- Presently,millions of Americans use words they don't know the meaning of,and casually toss out remarks which bely their true behavior.When a real dialogue begins,people may wake up.I'm not saying it will be pretty,but nothing changes without it.

[SuperTrooper]

How about we take all these high falutin' ideas over to THE LOUNGE where they belong and get back ON TOPIC!

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by Funny

Indeed to stay on topic... The Benz Boxfish, the Aptera, the EV1 (not so much), design are radical aerodynamic designs that are hard to swallow in this current day-and-age's thinking. They are just weird to some people.

We have all heard from Basjoos about all the looks he gets, and anytime one of us makes an aerodynamic mod that is well, ugly..., for lack of a better word because ugliness is relative, it exposes the public to something they haven't seen before. That is one of the reasons that most cars today have the guppy mouth opening, along with a slew of other drag inducing additions to an otherwise "clean" body. They were widely accepted in the past, why not keep using them.

If we continue showing the public what aerodynamics can do for them, we'll just be the beginning of the wave of acceptance. I think that if all manufacturers were required to make an aerodynamic version of a current popular model using a body kit and selling it for an extra $1000, you would have people like us, just not as extreme, lined up at the doors waiting to buy them. In short, there is a market for radically aerodynamic vehicles, it is just in its infancy.

Rant over...

Historically,the Boxfish and Aptera would have been radical in 1922.

[aerohead]

Thanks for the recommendation!

[orange4boy]

Found this interesting link to a vid about blunt versus wedge on the Vetter site:"

http://www.craigvetter.com/Movies/Streamlined_test.mov

Also from the thirties the Dymaxion car by Buckminster Fuller:

The most interesting piece of gossip about the car:

In his 1988 book The Age of Heretics, author Art Kleiner maintained that the real reason why Chrysler refused to produce the car was because bankers had threatened to recall their loans, feeling that the car would destroy sales for vehicles already in the distribution channels and second-hand cars.

(From Wikipedia)

3d model of the dymaxion car

[orange4boy]

Is this the kind of good old republican experience Sarah Palin brings to the floor?

'Troopergate' inquiry finds Sarah Palin guilty - Times Online

Yeah, I know... take it to the lounge.

[Cd]

Just reviving an old thread to post this link :

Car Aerodynamics - Hot Rod Magazine

The full article in now online.

Let us please stay on topic

[Cd]

If you like pictures, follow this link ( they are the same ones that I posted earlier at low quality earlier in the thread. )

http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/b.../photo_01.html