Drag Queens : C&D video link of wind tunnel tests
 

We have discussed this test in the past, but i'm not sure the video has been posted.
Drag Queens: Aerodynamics Compared – Video – Car and Driver

EDIT : Here is a link to the article as well :http://www.caranddriver.com/features...omparison-test

looks like MB fudged their aero claim for the CLA.

regards
mech

The lowest-spec version we get in America is the CLA 250, for which Mercedes claims Cd .28.

They claculated the MB at .30 and the Leaf at .32. With the attention to aero improvements MB has been advertising and claiming, I wonder how much the consumption of the Leaf would decrease if the cd was .25. It is, after all, a short distance commuter vehicle with average speeds probably around 25 MPH or even less depending of traffic density of individual commutes.

regards
mech

The Leaf gets driven at speeds just like any other car. It is a daily driver car - and it goes just as fast as any other daily driver commuting car. If the Leaf had a Cd of 0.25, it would have a beneficial effect, just like any other car.

Video doesn't work on the C&D website
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNPTXrj_vmw

I e-mailed the A2 tunnel regarding the .30 cD on the 1st Gen. Insight, and go this response :

Quote :
I wasn't present for the test in question but I must assume the car would have been in new stock condition as implied by the article. There are a few things to keep in mind when questioning the Cd; all wind tunnels have some variation from one to the next but any decent wind tunnel should be fairly repeatable and reproducible to itself. Also manufacturers have been known to report "overly optimistic" data concerning the drag coefficient and gas mileage the latter most average consumers can attest to. This is why it is a good idea for groups like car and driver to conduct independent tests comparing multiple models concurrently at the same location. The data produced this way can be more reliable and more useful to the average consumer as the data is much more comparable between the models. I hope I have been able to give you some small degree of clarity on the article.

Geoffrey Eaker
Operations Manager
A2 Wind Tunnel

Spoken to the 'birds-of-a-feather' jingle: "Test done together, yield (comparable) data together."