Lotus Eletre

[serialk11r]

The little winglets at the caught my attention. Do these work a lot better than the usual spoiler?





Rear window looks like it has a 25 degree angle or so.

[freebeard]

Stealth Batmobile.

[redpoint5]

$200,000. They will sell, but I protest.

Back in the day I was on this forum pondering a Toyota Corolla, or a Delorean, or a Lotus Elise... ended up with the Acura TSX I still have.

[serialk11r]

So what I'm wondering is if you can do the winglets on any car, or if the flying buttresses are crucial. Seems like the idea is to reduce the C pillar trailing vortices, but I am having a hard time understanding how these are more useful than just "fins" that wall off the flow.

[alexshock]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

The little winglets at the caught my attention. Do these work a lot better than the usual spoiler?





Rear window looks like it has a 25 degree angle or so.

Is it already a coupe or yet a sedan?

[aerohead]

The steep slope tends towards a flow separation-induced vortex-pair, with downwash and induced drag/ lift.
The outboard segmented roof spoilers might help mitigate some of the vorticity.
A remaining weak downwash might help prevent back-soiling of the rear windshield, allowing the driver better outwards vision, while allowing traffic behind the Lotus to see when the third brake-light illuminated, avoiding rear end collisions.
And perhaps, kill a bit of the lift/drag. Something of greater concern with faster, high-performance vehicles, antecedents of all Lotus Cars.

[freebeard]

So what I'm wondering .... if the flying buttresses are crucial

If there are in fact flying buttresses that I cannot see, those could act as an air curtain or window clearing device.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

So what I'm wondering is if you can do the winglets on any car, or if the flying buttresses are crucial. Seems like the idea is to reduce the C pillar trailing vortices, but I am having a hard time understanding how these are more useful than just "fins" that wall off the flow.

Are we discussing 'adding' flying buttresses, extending them out to the actual end of the rear windshield? To sequester the flow within their 'new' boundary?
If so, creating blind spots may have put them off. The driver's view out might be limited, creating a hazard during a lane change.

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by freebeard

If there are in fact flying buttresses that I cannot see, those could act as an air curtain or window clearing device.

Originally Posted by aerohead

Are we discussing 'adding' flying buttresses, extending them out to the actual end of the rear windshield? To sequester the flow within their 'new' boundary?
If so, creating blind spots may have put them off. The driver's view out might be limited, creating a hazard during a lane change.

No what I was trying to get at is you would have to do a lot of cutting into most cars to get flying buttresses, so I was wondering if the winglets alone do anything, or if just the piece perpendicular to the window that forms the root of the winglet would have a similar effect.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by aerohead

The steep slope tends towards a flow separation-induced vortex-pair, with downwash and induced drag/ lift.
The outboard segmented roof spoilers might help mitigate some of the vorticity.
A remaining weak downwash might help prevent back-soiling of the rear windshield, allowing the driver better outwards vision, while allowing traffic behind the Lotus to see when the third brake-light illuminated, avoiding rear end collisions.
And perhaps, kill a bit of the lift/drag. Something of greater concern with faster, high-performance vehicles, antecedents of all Lotus Cars.

On some of my roof wing studies (link in signature below) you once suggested roof cab outer corner treatments (various forms studied) would at best "delay" vortex formation.

If the case here is one of vortex delay, that would mean swaths of air swishing sideways/diagonally over the rear window may be avoided, but the drag would be still trailing the vehicle.