Interesting Aerodynamic Cars (Mike Vetter's ETV, also Avion)

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by freebeard

NIO -- 0.208
Mercedes-Benz EQS 450+ -- 0.200
Tesla Model -- 0.208
EQS 580 4MATIC i-- 0.209
Lucid Air -- 0.21.

As sedans converge. I wonder if that body style is more optimizable than coupe, CUV, or station wagon/sedan delivery.


1958 Merc Turnpike Cruiser, WRC race cars and big rig clearance lights nod approvingly.

Long ago, Hucho laid out the situation. In a low drag competition, the sedan/coupe would ultimately have the advantage, simply because of their minimum frontal area. They're the easiest platform from which to express the streamline half-body.
You get the flow attached, you keep it attached, and keep stretching the rear, reducing the cross-section while respecting sectional density, recovering pressure for every added millimeter, and when the air finally reaches the end of the car and breaks away, you're at the smallest wake and highest base pressure.
Historically though, some of the most 'efficient' car shapes developed were more 'CUV' than coupe/sedan. Like the Renault Vesta-II and Bionic Boxfish. For their 'length' these two deliver the lowest drag with the 'least' amount of car.
Coupes and sedans, presently waste a lot of body length on useless forebodies, which could become longer aft-bodies. Where the money's hidden.
Drag specifications and safety considerations compete for real estate.
The GAC.ENO 146 concept will be the one to watch. If something like it actually makes it to production, it will change the entire design calculus of the market.
The Paris Dressmakers have had a long, 95-year run. Perhaps it's time to reintroduce serious physics into the automotive equation. Something scientists have eluded to, at least since 1957.

[freebeard]

They'll always have photo-chromic spray-on compound curve LED screens to work with.

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/t...tos-40808.html

edit: I think one would make that basic body shape with a VW Beetle floorpan, tube roll cage with fenders integrated and a cut-down Previa windshield. Sound feasible?

[freebeard]

Hey, I think this is the one I saw being built. I visited a science-fiction author in the South Hills of Eugene, where he was building a car using fiberglass over cardboard for the interior bulkheads. I never saw it finished (or again)

powered by a Corvair 2.4L flat-six paired with a four-speed manual, with Porsche- and Volkswagen-based brakes and suspension, front-hinged clamshell bodywork, gullwing doors, a double-bubble roofline, 15″ wide-five aluminum wheels, and latch-and-link lap belts.

Featured in the May 1968 issue of Road & Track magazine.

Just A Car Guy: Dean Ing, NYT bestselling author, and Hugo award nominee, made an interesting gullwing in his spare time Thanks Doug M!

It's on eBay. The current bid is $16.1K. More pics there.

[RedDevil]

Barn find Bricklin:

[RedDevil]

Bizarre oriental tadpole trike.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkHmG128w_0

[freebeard]

Just A Car Guy: I like it, for the looks, and ability to park anywhere. I bet it needs more power though

The contour of the nose is like a [scaled down ] BMW Mini, but look at that cabin. Compound curve glazing for a aerodynamic blister. 1954 Ford Skyliner got nothin' in the three-piece windshield. 1949 Nash Aeroflyte got nuthin' on that right-sized grille opening.

No indication of make or model, there may be a tiny badge below the hood.

edit: Tiny silver time attack dive planes.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by freebeard

They'll always have photo-chromic spray-on compound curve LED screens to work with.

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/t...tos-40808.html

edit: I think one would make that basic body shape with a VW Beetle floorpan, tube roll cage with fenders integrated and a cut-down Previa windshield. Sound feasible?

Seems like one could put 'anything' on an air-cooled VW platform.
1) That basic body would be problematic though, as Buchheim et al. found out when they tried to do the same thing to create the VW 2000.
2) The severely-slanted windshield created intolerable forward vision light refraction.
3) Same at the rear.
4) From Elliott G. Reid's 1935 aero research at Stanford University, we can anticipate that the full-width rear track will cost them. Losing the plan-view taper down the flanks cost Reid 16% in added drag.

[freebeard]

Honda's Got a Whimsical Vision for the Self-Driving Future
Honda's project stars seven whimsical vehicular prototypes, each the size of a remote-controlled car and photographed in vivid, diorama-like landscapes.

Yeah, a motorhome that leans in the corners...that won't be intimidating on 101. I like the unaerodynamic six-wheel swamp buggy.

[Piotrsko]

Originally Posted by freebeard

[URL="https://www.wired.com/2016/04/hondas-groovy-vision-future-self-driving-car-travel/"]

Yeah, a motorhome that leans in the corners...that won't be intimidating on 101.

Hard to determine if that last bit was sarcastic or not
There's probably many corners like the illustration where oncomming tall traffic is going to rip the top off. I wonder how they compensate for that because I saw people doing really stupid motorhome stuff last time I was there towing my Casita.

[freebeard]

Hard to determine if that last bit was sarcastic or not

out back should have told you. Maybe put 'that won't be intimidating' in italics?

But good -- sarcasm is the hardest thing for the Facebooks of the world to cope with. Let's go brain-dumb.

If two of those met at speed in a corner, they'd would not slip right past each other.