Inadvertently "tuft" testing a Taurus

[Fat Charlie]

A Taurus with a garbage bag backglass went by me this morning and I was kind of surprised by the bad aero it showed. The driver hasn't discovered EZ-Pass technology yet, so a few miles later he had to pass me again:

[doviatt]

You Know You Are An Eco Modder if....you see this and can turn it into thought experiment other than poor guy lost his rear window.
The fact that it is a high pressure back there (bag pushed in) is a good sign of attachment. With bad aero you usually get low pressure at the back which would pull the bag out. Also kind of depends on if he had windows up or down and if he had cabin fan on or not too.

[user removed]

The right front fender to door gap isn't helping either. Should have moved the heater control to fresh air.

regards
Mech

[MetroMPG]

Isn't that strange! And interesting - thanks for posting.

[Fat Charlie]

You've got to love the 21st century, where our first reaction is "what will the internet think of that?" and our second is "where's my camera?"

The air on that backglass doesn't look attached to me- it looks like it's detatched, come around and is pushing its way back in! I always expected that from the rear end, but I thought the backglass curve would be less horrible.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

You've got to love the 21st century, where our first reaction is "what will the internet think of that?" and our second is "where's my camera?"

Us: Providing telemetry or something of the sort.

Everybody else? They are talking on it!

[or texting]

[Miller88]

That car is pretty much the same as the 96-99 Taurus - which was very aerodynamic for it's time. Basically the front and rear clip are the only difference on the body.

[The Other Andy]

Originally Posted by Miller88

That car is pretty much the same as the 96-99 Taurus - which was very aerodynamic for it's time. Basically the front and rear clip are the only difference on the body.

Actually everything rear of the B-pillar is different, minus the rear doors.

Here's a rear pic of the gen 4 (2000-2007):


Here's a rear pic of the gen 3 (1996-1999):

The roof line was extended to provide more passenger headroom, and the trunk was raised for more luggage space. On the gen 3 the trunk lid slopes down towards the rear. On the 4th generation the trunk lid is flat.

Interestingly, the 4th gen also has an indentation at the rear. That's something that UC Davis put on their hybrid Taurus which they named Joule. UC Davis Joule

I'm guessing Ford looked over some of their work.

Both the 3rd and 4th gen Taurus's had the same Cd as far as I'm aware, although fuel economy dropped 1mpg with the 2004 refresh (which only had front and rear bumper cover changes externally). It is a shame that Ford made such an aerodynamic sedan, then put relatively inefficient drivetrains in it.