Most efficient color car
 

Whats the fastest color? I know from being a sailor a white sail is better because wind hits the sail and not the heat radiating from a dark sail. Maybe with cars it may be better to have heat surronding the car. (Free wind deflector) Not looking to go fast just get better MPGs.

I think light colours' main advantage on cars would be reduced A/C use more than anything else. Interesting thought though.

If we were going to take a page from aircraft building, we wouldn't paint the cars at all - to save weight!

OT: I recently saw a program about a large, water jet-drive catamaran built in Australia, and if I recall correctly they saved thousands of pounds by not painting everything. (Yes, I realize cars aren't as big as ferry boats.)

White up front, black toward the rear.

I suspect there's not much difference at conventional road speeds for cars. When I look at a NASCAR track and see the entire spectrum of colors on everything -- makes me think that since they're not all just a few colors, there is probably no edge to just a few colors.

But in theory darker colors should absorb more energy, translate that into heat, transferring part of that energy back to the air and decreasing the air density... sounds pretty small though.

Hello -

I was thinking a black hood might help keep the engine hotter, especially in more northern climates.

I prefer white overall.

CarloSW2

i would say a white car with a dark hood, along with illegal tint on the windsheild would be marginally better. White car absorbs less overall heat, windsheild has a large surface area that people generally do not tint. The dark hood would make the car warm up slightly faster to get to operating temps.

yeah what he said. :)

Interesting thought. The black would heat up and act to push the car. Maybe installing a clear kammelback would help direct this heat exhaust (thrust) out the back... :rolleyes:

I do remember Mythbusters doing some tests on how hot different colour cars get, some colours did seem to trap the heat more from what i remember, i looked on the site and it seems they did in episode 38, but i can't find a site to tell me the outcome of the experiment.

For me around here it's any dark color, but preferably black. They dry up faster under the sun, so they are less prone to rust than a white car for example.

you could have a white engine bay with a black hood, that would promote faster warmups in summer, the hood absorbing heat and the walls of the bay radiating it back inwards.
or a black engine bay and a white hood to promote better heat transfer out of the engine bay and therefore allow more grillblock in summer...

far fetched perhaps though :)

NASCAR trucks have lots of colors because its eye candy for the spectators, they can be identified so you can pick the one you would like to see crash and they would never tell a sponser your logo slows me down, take back all your money.

Other than improved warm up of the engine, I don't see color improving speed or velocity that would be of measurable or major consequence. Average car is too massive.

As for the Mythbusters RESULTS, here it is:

MythBusters Episode 38: "MythBusters Revisited"

and because I think this is always cool to mention:

-- my own test results agreed with this as 45mph showed no major drag but at 50mph it was more apparent. :D

Hey everybody knows that Green is the best color. A Green car should be getting about 10% better mileage than the other color cars.

Later,

Allan Greenblazer

shouldn't a green car get better than 10% better? seems your truck is working on 44.1% better....

A shiny car will get better mileage... The reference to the NASCAR cars triggered a special I saw where they talked about using skins instead of decals on the bodies of the NASCAR cars. This would be similar to removing all of the little emblems on the car to smooth out the surface. Also, in WWII, the USAAC discovered that there was significant drag associated with the olive drab painted aircraft, and that by removing the drab paint and leaving the bare metal, they not only saved some weight, but big gains were the reduced drag on the plane.

That is false.

That makes sense, though the improvement won't be noticeable, we're talking less than a 1% drag reduction.

Planes do not exactly travel at the same speed as we do.

I believe the fastest color would be plaid.

:thumbup:

oh snap. Ludicrous speed engage!

Depends on the area. Whatever color the police cars are in your particular part of the world is the fastest color and least costly to the driver. The proof...they go as fast as they want, don't have to stop at red lights, never get pulled over and don't have to pay for their gas!

color
 

Vanishing-fluid is best.It's on the same isle as frictionless bearings,anti-gravity spray,left-handed axle stretchers,kanutin rods,dizzly-pins,chrome muffler bearings,board stretchers,hole-shrink,and automatic-installation grease.

you forgot the perpetual machine aero!!!

Hey isn't that the same isle with gweebo discs and spray squelch?
also headlight/horn fluid?

And you can get it all right here:
KaleCoAuto, Hard to find automotive items!

listen to this
 

where did this woman come from?


http://www.ourlighterside.com/videos/phone-call.html

sorry,I was levitating in front of the computer in the perpetual motion machine,and I couldn't see the toothpicks for the sticks.I levitate corrected!

Man,I'm headin' for Virginia Beach! I've just gotta have some of that headlight/horn fluid!!!!!!!

I can't stop laughing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!! Wow!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll have to get to a computer with audio,looks like fun!Thanks!

The Americas Cup was lost to the Aussies after they applied "Ripplets" to their hull. These triangular shaped bumbs would produce a back eddie to push the boat forward. Not sure if it would work on a car

Wow, and nobody cried foul for tech cheating?

It might work on large cars or trucks but on smaller vehicles it might create more drag than its worth, nevermind that water dynamics are so different from air.

I think I was married to her once. I am still paying for sh!t. Thanks Metro now at least I know where my money was going. Your alright, I don't care what your family says. Man do I feel better now. :thumbup:

Hilarious! But they really used a lot of fuel on the hyperjets :p

I've always liked dark cars and have paid the price for it.

As far a paint weight, I wonder how much the paint on a car weighs? Too bad it serves as rust protection.

In the never ending quest for FE, American Airlines is considering the removal of even more paint to save weight (I think all that's left is the stripe, logo and tail). On the largest aircraft, that's nearly a 300 lb. difference in just paint to lug around. Maybe we all should get a DeLorean...

In reality, I vote for a white car in the summer, and black top surfaces for Winter (hood, roof, trunk/hatch). Not sure how you would do this. Easiest would be to have 2 hoods...

RH77

I don't know about the color itself being more efficient, but I can tell you I'll be painting my truck white when I do it. My flow through fans aren't strong enough to keep up in the heat in a black truck, so I end up with the windows down as I have no AC. Both of my dad's pickups are white, MUCH cooler after sitting out than my truck or his work truck.

How about a spectrally selective zinc oxide paint? White on the visible spectrum, so it doesn´t absorb much energy from sunlight, and black on the infrared spectrum, so it cools by radiation better.

I do know lots of medium duty vehicles have flat black hoods to keep the engine bay cooler.

Nope - think parasitic surface drag based on smoothness... The shiny was a reference to clean and polished.

The difference between decals and skins is miniscule, but removing emblems is a tried and true way to improve aerodynamics, though not related to OP. Aren't we all after that last 1% anyway?

Correct, but the same rules apply, we all have to pass through the same air.

it is indeed the color white. for longevity I have learned a shade of earth lasts...greens and browns,sometimes blue. I guess blue depends on the clean sky above it... and of cheap guaged bodies, a touch of metallic. Amazing freaky longevities... the light ones have many long trips to remember, the white ones have always been the sippers and cool...and falling apart...baby blue metallic may be a car to seek next. I am bored...

Ripplets
 

There's a fellow,I believe,involved with the US Navy' dolphin research of the early 1960s.He developed"Laminflo",which was applied to torpedos,and it cut skin friction dramatically.I believe the current Olympic swimmers are wearing suits derived from this technology.If yo notice the underwater video from Beijing,you'll notice that the fabric is not "wet".---------------------------------- For road going motor vehicles,they cannot benefit from such technology,as the Reynold's Number effects just aren't there for the scale of the vehicles and speeds they drive at.A dead end for ecomodders! Too bad!

Actually, the rules do change as speed increases, as aerohead mentioned.