Chevy sweats the details...

[botsapper]

...on the Chevy Camaro Z/28, that they even used thinner rear window glass, lighter rear seats, and deleted the AC. In wind tunnel testing they found out that their bowtie logo in the front grill deflected three cubic meters of air each minute from the radiator reducing optimal engine cooling. So the engineering solution was to 'hollow out' the famous bowtie and created the 'Flowtie'. Clever marketing and made you look!

http://gmauthority.com/blog/wp-conte...e1-500x340.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP4Pp5l-kLg

[gone-ot]

F = M×A

When you want more acceleration (A) from a fixed amount of force (F = hp), you gotta shave some mass (M)...or weight.

[P-hack]

this belongs in the not ecomodding forum

[PaleMelanesian]

Or they could start by making it not a heavy pig. Ford's Mustang GT comes in at 3618 lb, while the heavily weight-reduced Camaro Z28 is still 3837 lb.

[botsapper]

The post may not be in the true spirit of eco-modding but it does show the scrutinizing of wind tunnel tests and revising the smallest details for aero or performance advantages. The iconic Camaro brand does not endear itself to fuel-efficiency but it does show that designers and engineers have the capacity and ability to create even higher aero-efficienct vehicles...if it wants to.

Unfortunately, pickup trucks, SUVs, luxury and performance brands still lead the corporate agenda.

[MetroMPG]

Drat, you made me look!

[gone-ot]

Just think of it as "...a real life example of how NOT to achieve FE..."

[PressEnter[]]

3800 lbs? They might be able to make it go fast with enough horsepower, but there's nothing sporty about that mountain of metal, aero bow-tie or not.

[P-hack]

Originally Posted by PressEnter[]

aero bow-tie or not.

That's the worst part, they had a partial grill block before they hollowed it out

though given its location in the center, I wonder if it actually kept as much air out of the radiator as they imply, speedholes...

[Vman455]

The Jalopnik commentariat put it best: "Wouldn't it be even easier to just move the logo off the intake?"