Interesting Aerodynamic Cars (Mike Vetter's ETV, also Avion) - Page 385 - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

RedDevil · 09-19-2021, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by freebeard

DAF (van Doorne's Automobiel Fabriek), all caps, like FIAT (but not [AUDI]?)

Thanks, fixed...! I knew, but still... yoo know

Audi is indeed not in all caps, because it is the Latin version of the name of its founder:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horch

Quote:

In 1909, the supervisory board (the German equivalent of the Board of Directors) of the [Horch] corporation forced out Horch. Horch went on to found Audi as Audiwerke GmbH, which became effective on 25 April 1910. The name was a solution to the legal dispute with his old company over use of the Horch brand and a clever play of words ("audi" is the literal Latin translation of the Old German "horch", meaning the imperative "Listen!").

freebeard · 09-19-2021, 05:30 PM

I wasn't trying to one-up a Nieuwegein[-ian/-ite]. It's for, you know, the lurkerbots. I'd thought Audi came from an Auto-Union union.

In any case, that's one sweet little coupe.
________________

So.... Why isn't this thread Stickied? The aerohead thread hasn't been posted to since 2014.

RedDevil · 09-19-2021, 06:28 PM

Ah, Nieuwegein. The birthplace of Wifi. And my mother.

Although technically, my mother was born in Jutphaas, which was at the time a small village with a large municipality consisting of mainly farmland, but running up quite close to the heart of the city of Utrecht, which had sold its land rights in the Middle ages to likely focus on its core business of being a city and leaving al the peasantries to others.

Enter prewar growth and scarcity of housing, and big housing projects were started to house the people working in Utrecht that were unable to find suitable accommodation, like my primary school teacher and principal granddad. Jutphaas ain't Utrecht, no matter how close the housing block was; but that was 'corrected' by annexation in the '50s to the dismay of Jutphaas...

50 years ago (almost to the day!) Jutphaas and Vreeswijk, a fishing and shipping town with a profitable lock service on the channel connecting the Lek river with Utrecht, merged to form Nieuwegein. This new town expanded rapidly with office buildings that housed (among others) a bustling IT company which grew annoyed of having wires everywhere to have devices communicate.

50 years Nieuwegein is reason for a celebration. As part of that we now have a trail of black tiles with engravings suggested by the locals that ends at the Kerkveld, the 1000 year old center of Jutphaas. Some of the tiles have engravings of Anna van Rijn, a noble lady who provided free housing and schooling for the poor as early as the 17h century, and other notable people of local history. There's a drawing of a bird by a man with a hemorrhage. There's a collection of personas in Minecraft, which my kids like very much. All in all, yeah. It connects people to a concept that never connected them before.

Nieuwegein was voted 'the ugliest town in the Netherlands' in 2007. Which is mostly undeserved, there are f.i. over 100 km of lanes and roads lined with trees and waterways and other pleasant things to look at. I do walk a lot but I seldom leave town, no need for it. But part of the credit has to go to the council which has indeed worked to improve how Nieuwegein looks. Nonetheless, housing is cheapest in the region for a reason, and when my wife wanted to reduce travel time to her job in nearby Houten it was the logical choice (as my job was and is in Gouda to the west) and Nieuwegein was both reasonably accessible and reasonably priced.
We had no connections there whatsoever. We both grew up in the west (me Den Haag and Rijswijk, my wife in Alphen aan den Rijn; she was born on the doormat of the house she lived in until well after our marriage).

Six years on my wife's work went north (literally and otherwise) and the pandemic has me working at home. So here we are, my kids know Nieuwegein as home, and we grow used to it. It would be ideal if I had no tinnitus and the area would not be locked in in a narrow triangle of the busiest highways in the country... but then if you need to go anywhere you just drive about straight at it.

kach22i · 09-20-2021, 08:00 PM

https://nmnc.substack.com/p/00049

Quote:

It’s the creation of a criminally under-the-radar designer and aerodynamicist named Takuya Yura, President of Mooncraft Ltd. Since 1975, Mooncraft has been involved in racing in Japan and abroad as the constructor MCS, but took a leap forward in 1986 when it built its own wind tunnel.

https://www.mooncraft.jp/blogstaff/t...%EF%BC%94-com/

How it Works: Streamlining and The Story of Koenig-Fachsenfeld
https://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.a...teamlining.php

freebeard · 09-20-2021, 08:41 PM

That's pretty neat. The Mooncraft article has this:

But the other is in English and gives the horsepowers. Hey, I could build a subframe out of the Baja rear bumper I already have and hang the Lexus electric axle I already have behind the stroker 1776 I already have in the 1958 Baja bug I already have. Hmmmm.....

Cover the mismatched axles with Moon disks?

NeilBlanchard · 09-21-2021, 05:40 AM

https://newatlas.com/motorcycles/big...ycle-wmc250ev/

RedDevil · 09-21-2021, 07:06 AM

If your Maybach seems a bit small for its parking space, there's this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkJxe2djLAA

Accordowner · 09-21-2021, 10:11 PM

One of the slickest vehicles I've ever seen is not an automobile but on a Velomobile:
The Aerovelo Eta, which is the current record holder for Human Powered Vehicles (HPVs) was clocked at 89.6 mph on human power alone! You achieve such speeds only with extreme aerodynamics and efficiency. In this case it has a drag coefficient of mere 0.038!! Or 9544 MPG Equivalent efficiency!!!
I can only imagine how efficient this Velomobile would be if fitted with an electric motor and battery!