'Tesla Model 3 Highland aero tweaking'

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by Phase

See. No more air curtains

Are we sure?
The single, central grille opening would be lower drag than a grille opening, plus side inlets. That's 2013, C6-R, Corvette Racing Team technology.
And the single inlet can be internally branched and ducted for battery cooling, air conditioning, plus split to each side for air curtains, AND it would be sourced with higher static pressure than originally found on the sides of the fascia. Also 2013 GM aero technology!

[Phase]

Originally Posted by aerohead

Are we sure?
The single, central grille opening would be lower drag than a grille opening, plus side inlets. That's 2013, C6-R, Corvette Racing Team technology.
And the single inlet can be internally branched and ducted for battery cooling, air conditioning, plus split to each side for air curtains, AND it would be sourced with higher static pressure than originally found on the sides of the fascia. Also 2013 GM aero technology!

Julian Edgar said the new Tesla doesn’t have air curtains before the sides are optimized to the point where it doesn’t need air curtains. He just made a comment about the new shape

[Vekke]

Somewhere was said its 20mm lower, but haven't found proof of that. As specs are more rumours than clear data sheet.

I haven't seen inside front wheel wells to verify is there outlet or not. To cut parts and processes they might be behind the bumber...

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by Phase

Julian Edgar said the new Tesla doesn’t have air curtains before the sides are optimized to the point where it doesn’t need air curtains. He just made a comment about the new shape

He may be correct.
There's an Indian website which claims that the Highland does have them.
I can't find an image from behind the car looking forwards, where we might get a glimpse of any front fascia, trailing-edge-to- wheelhouse ducting which would inform us.

[Vekke]

Today had a Gigafactory Berlin factory tour and there was new model 3 higland there on the yard

Air curtains are still there

Behind the bumber and air inlet at the front bumber air intake hole corners

https://youtu.be/y5FSD3wxUdg?si=mUDzkXkjhPzwPMtm

[bwilson4web]

I took one frame and visually enhanced to show the air curtain vent:

Thanks to @Vekke who made the video that included this frame.

I found one paper about air curtains:

Citation: Ferraris, A., Pinheiro, H., Airale, A., Carello, M. et al., "City Car Drag Reduction by means of Flow Control Devices," SAE Technical Paper 2020-36-0080, 2021, https://doi.org/10.4271/2020-36-0080.
Download Citation

At $35, I'm not sure I want to buy it.

I did find these YouTube videos that offers insights:
https://youtu.be/ptNnbB7R3SE?si=d9cApYGAvqu-_aSZ

https://youtu.be/mXh2zG4fpb0?si=TIJ22Cei9bNrHdh8

Do you have a concern with wheel well, air curtains?

The reason I ask is I bought a polyethylene piece to block for the front air curtain inlets on my Model 3. My primary plan is to make a conformal cover for the slot outside of the front air inlet. I had also thought about testing blocking of the air curtain slots. But my wheel covers significantly reduce the amount of air leaking in/out of the spokes.

Guess I need to do some tuff testing.

Bob Wilson

[Phase]

Originally Posted by Vekke

Today had a Gigafactory Berlin factory tour and there was new model 3 higland there on the yard

Air curtains are still there

Behind the bumber and air inlet at the front bumber air intake hole corners

https://youtu.be/y5FSD3wxUdg?si=mUDzkXkjhPzwPMtm

Very interesting. I wonder how those style air curtains are better than the old ones

[bwilson4web]

Found:

Modifying the Aerodynamics of Your Road Car (SpeedPro series) Kindle Edition
by Julian Edgar

Nice read with a collection of SAE and other professional papers and experiments from his career. The Kindle version is quite readable but dog earring the pages ... still working on that.

It is helping me prioritize my next Tesla tuning efforts.

Bob Wilson

[Vekke]

Some interesting engineering facts about the new tesla model 3 in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RewrTJqc0wU

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by Phase

Very interesting. I wonder how those style air curtains are better than the old ones

There's two things going on with the 'Highland.'
1) Having a single inlet is an aerodynamic advantage in it's own right.
2) And harvesting all the air, right at the forward stagnation point, allows a higher static pressure at the inlet, compared to the sides of the nose, where the air is already accelerated.
Professor Alberto Morelli spent a small fortune on this kind of research at Pininfarina's wind tunnel in 1976-1978, for the Cd 0.203, CNR, PF-1 research concept.
The Chevrolet Corvette racing team has also found it to be an aerodynamic advantage for both drag, and thermal management.