Just a random idea.

[backpacker3]

You know the golf ball effect? How adding dimples improves fuel economy? Well what about plastidipping the roof of your car with dimples in it? you could do a coat of plastidip and then set some balls in it and keep adding layers of plasti dip until you have decent sized dimples in it.

What do you think? Worthwhile or no?

[Frank Lee]

IIRC the consensus was dimples don't help aero in this application no matter how they get there.

[freebeard]

One or two rows of dimples just before the point of separation might help. Covering the roof (or the whole car) would be overkill.

How are you going to remove the balls without pulling the Plasti Dip away with them.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by backpacker3

You know the golf ball effect?

Lock the thread, demand orders - signed in triplicate, send them back, lose them, when found, subject them to public inquiry, lose them again, and finally bury them in soft peat for three months and recycle them as firelighters.

I am not trying to be rude, there have been too many threads on here regarding this. I guess that you never watched the Mythbusters episode where they tried this. They got a Ford Fusion, put one hundred pounds of modeling clay on it, drove it one full mile, carved out 1,000 dimples, put the dimples in a box in the back seat, drove another full mile, and claimed that it was 10% more fuel efficient, which, according to what I have learned here, means that it was 20% more fuel efficient, which is a huge amount. A full boat tail makes a car about ten percent more efficient!

What else I have learned on here: One of the "Mythbusters" earned an engineering degree and in engineering school, they teach about Reynold's number, which states that golf ball dimples do not work on larger objects than golf balls. Also, you might notice differences between golf balls and cars, as mentioned, size, but also cars are never spherical and ideally never spinning through the air.

To be honest, I have wanted to repeat the Mythbuster's experiment, but using the guidelines that I have learned here, which should disprove them, but I need to worry about keeping my car running, let alone aeromodifications that are almost guaranteed to work.

[oldtamiyaphile]

Originally Posted by Xist

They got a Ford Fusion, put one hundred pounds of modeling clay on it, drove it one full mile, carved out 1,000 dimples, put the dimples in a box in the back seat, drove another full mile, and claimed that it was 10% more fuel efficient, which, according to what I have learned here, means that it was 20% more fuel efficient, which is a huge amount. A full boat tail makes a car about ten percent more efficient!

That's what we call an A-B test. Maybe an A-B-A test would have shown a different outcome. It's certainly an interesting result but one that really needs a revisit. Two directional A-B-A, and the weight of the clay needs to be carried in 'A' tests, which I don't remember them doing.

It wouldn't be the first time they've messed up.

[backpacker3]

Hey guys sorry if this gets posted a lot I had just seen some things that said that adding dimples works and just thought I would post this.
Xist the I saw the mythbusters episode too that's where the idea came from I didn't realize the general consensus here was that it didn't work. I figured that it might be useful for someone who maybe had removed roof rails or something
Ike that as an option to cover the roof of the car with something that might help a little bit for fuel economy. But hey if this end up corralled or closed it was just a though so no big deal

Not that it really matters at this point but if you put some masking or painters tape on the outside of the balls they would come out easy.

[RedDevil]

FWIW, loads of golf ball dimples on ecomodder in this link.

[YeahPete]

You could also take a ball-peen hammer to the roof of your car. Or leave your car out in a hailstorm.

[Xist]

I hoped to be sufficiently ridiculous for you to know that I was not serious. They put the clay on the car and then they carved the dimples and put them in the back, so it was the same weight for both runs, but still, they only drove one mile, and no, it was not A-B-A. I would not think that it would be too difficult to put the dimples back on and drive another whole mile!

They do not close threads around here for random reasons, people need to get argumentative, abusive, and insulting.

I look forward to reading the cortex generator thread since those are about as popular.

[Frank Lee]

Cortex generators are what the world really needs.