Dream Wheel Skirt. Am I Crazy?

[2003protege]

sooooOOooooo, this is a dream mod of mine, mostly because I would love to see if it had a quantitative effect on my FE.

But my idea was a modified rear wheel skirt with an aerodynamics fairing for the tire. It would be one piece addition to be attached to the body panel through existing holdes. A picture is worth a thousand words, so check out the attachment.

I was wondering whether the more experienced persons on this forum believed a modification like this would be decidedly more advantageous than a stock** wheel skirt.

I think it would give my car a solar-car look =P lemme know what you think!

**one that just extends the lines of the car body over the wheel

[Lazarus]

I don't know what you mean by stock wheel skirt. I don't think you can get them stock you have to make them yourself and yes they will help FE. Here's lovemysan pic he has some very nice ones in his gallery.

[2003protege]

edited for clarity...i'd have to get a cadillac to get them stock =P

[Bror Jace]

2003protege, I think going below the body line would catch more air. I'd stick with a flush design (or as close to flush as you can get).

[TheDon]

the build quality of those skirts is very nice. I am interested..

[landspeed]

I think to stick to the body line, but then to do a front wheel 'spoiler' and rear wheel boat-tails would work well. I am planning to do this on my car as soon as I have the time

[MetroMPG]

I'm with landspeed: shaping the flow ahead of the tire and boat-tailing it behind is a good idea, aerodynamically (whether it's actually integrated into the skirt as a single unit or not).

Comment though: the angle of the boat tail portion you drew is likely too sharp to retain attached flow.

[2003protege]

yeah, i realized that the boat tail could not be to scale if it were to work properly

however, i noticed that Priuses(Prii?) have a sort of boat tail behind each rear wheel. are there any good articles/threads concerning that design feature and it's purpose?