Replacing a trunk lid with an aerodynamic box.

[Xist]

I ran across this picture:

We have discussed box cavities before and members without hatchbacks have tried to work around a trunk. Christofu worked on his Aero Hitch Box / Boat Tail for exactly 2 years, but it failed spectacularly, and apparently he fled the country in shame. It seems he identifies this as a 2000 Corolla and, at least at some point, he owned it:

That is from his garage. I used AI to enlarge it, Google to brighten it, and Gimp to attempt to delete the watermark.

Metro commented that he was building a cardboard Kammback for his fancy Civic, but he restored it to stock in the spring and sold it.

I just wondered if anyone else had made a cardboard Kammback.

No, not really. Just Darin on and off for over 15 years on various sites.

Google showed some boat tails, but all of them were posted here, although some were shared elsewhere.

Here is Metro's Kamm back and boat tail:

What if you removed the trunk lid and welded a box, like on the Mercedes, but approaching the Template, put down fiberglass on the back window (over axle grease), shape a fairing with Great Stuff, and then fiberglass over that?

It looks like you can only add about 6", but more storage, and better aerodynamics?

I am thinking about something like this:

I'm not saying to not fill in the bottom, but maybe actually use that for a bumper?

I don't know if I have mentioned this before and it might have been 8 years ago, but I have long visualized pie-cutting a 4" sheet of foam to form the bottom of a boat tail\bumper.

[freebeard]

I got this far in 2013:


and this far in 2014:


With the second one, the hollow bulkhead is at the stock body length. The solid bulkhead at a likely truncation of the full reflex curve. Raising the top to the top of that 'rudder' would facilitate a rear window like a Studebaker Starlight coupe.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Sometimes when the sedan version of a certain model is better-looking than the hatchback, I wouldn't be so favorable to such mod.
5th-gen Ford Fiesta for instance..


Red is not my cup of tea, but the sedan seems to be better-looking than the hatchback. I can only guess how hard some half-assed conversion to station-wagon would fare when it comes to aerodynamics...

[Xist]

Cute dog!

Until you mentioned it was a Fiesta I thought that was a Focus.

The fifth generation was 2002–2014 in Brazil, but the fifth and sixth were 2002-2019 in the U.S.

The Saturn station wagon is the only one that I remember disliking. It seemed like they only changed the very back, behind the doors.

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by Xist

I ran across this picture:

We have discussed box cavities before and members without hatchbacks have tried to work around a trunk. Christofu worked on his Aero Hitch Box / Boat Tail for exactly 2 years, but it failed spectacularly, and apparently he fled the country in shame. It seems he identifies this as a 2000 Corolla and, at least at some point, he owned it:

That is from his garage. I used AI to enlarge it, Google to brighten it, and Gimp to attempt to delete the watermark.

Metro commented that he was building a cardboard Kammback for his fancy Civic, but he restored it to stock in the spring and sold it.

I just wondered if anyone else had made a cardboard Kammback.

No, not really. Just Darin on and off for over 15 years on various sites.

Google showed some boat tails, but all of them were posted here, although some were shared elsewhere.

Here is Metro's Kamm back and boat tail:

What if you removed the trunk lid and welded a box, like on the Mercedes, but approaching the Template, put down fiberglass on the back window (over axle grease), shape a fairing with Great Stuff, and then fiberglass over that?

It looks like you can only add about 6", but more storage, and better aerodynamics?

I am thinking about something like this:

I'm not saying to not fill in the bottom, but maybe actually use that for a bumper?

I don't know if I have mentioned this before and it might have been 8 years ago, but I have long visualized pie-cutting a 4" sheet of foam to form the bottom of a boat tail\bumper.

You need the 10-degree SAE 'departure' angle, coming up from the rear of the rear tire face-road interface for clearance. All the area not within the interference zone would be a great candidate for the 'aero' bumper.
It would extend both the diffuser and lower rear quarter panels, amplifying pressure recovery, base pressure rise, pressure drag reduction, and overall drag reduction. As seen on Mercedes-Benz' 1978 C-111 III series, their 1997 CLK-GTR, 2016 IAA, and recent Vision EQXX concept.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Xist

The fifth generation was 2002–2014 in Brazil, but the fifth and sixth were 2002-2019 in the U.S.

IIRC only the 1st-gen and the 6th-gen Fiestas were sold there, yet the 5th-gen was available in Mexico.

The Saturn station wagon is the only one that I remember disliking. It seemed like they only changed the very back, behind the doors.

I have only seen one Saturn SW, and I liked it.