Why have the Automakers refused the boat tail design?

[JethroBodine]

If JethroBodine and I (any others?) can actually make it out there and run,it could affect how the 'girly-man' boat tail is perceived.

That is also one of the reasons I'm working as hard as I am to make it.
Especially since, at 5'9"- 240 lbs, "girly" is seldom( if ever) used to describe me.

[CigaR007]

I don't believe they've refused it per se. IMO, rising gas prices will inevitably push automakers to pursue down the path of drastically refining the car's aerodynamics. The evolution towards a mainstream boat tail will happen, but it will be introduced in baby steps as the consumers do not like drastic and sudden changes, for the most part.

The automakers, or at least the engineers, know very well that a boat tail can greatly reduce drag, but the marketing/design department usually dictates the mold in which the car will take shape.

Seems to me that roles are reversed. The engineers should come up the best possible design and the marketing should sell that design to the masses.

[Cd]

About the closest I have seen to boattailing on a car has been the late nineties Buick Riviera and the Taurus I posted earlier.
Too bad they apparently do not pay attention to the function over form, since despite the obvious boattailing , I seem to remember the cars Cd in the low thirties .

[user removed]

Always thought that Riviera was beautiful. I bought a 95 with the Supercharger, but I never really tried to hypermile the Riv. It would get 30 MPG at 70-75 MPH and put you to sleep doing it. It coasted forever, even if you left it in drive. I thought the CD was listed at .30 but it sure acted like it was lower than that.

regards
Mech

[cfg83]

Old Mechanic -

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

Always thought that Riviera was beautiful. I bought a 95 with the Supercharger, but I never really tried to hypermile the Riv. It would get 30 MPG at 70-75 MPH and put you to sleep doing it. It coasted forever, even if you left it in drive. I thought the CD was listed at .30 but it sure acted like it was lower than that.

regards
Mech

Pretty car. I liked how they "creased" the top of the rear quarter panels. I called them nano-fins, .

CarloSW2

[2000mc]

then the actual riviera boattail

i always thought that body style was epic... maybe not good, but epic

[ron22]

Originally Posted by 2000mc

then the actual riviera boattail

i always thought that body style was epic... maybe not good, but epic

Any one lay the templat over it? It looks pretty good.
Also I like the car.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by aerohead

Tip of the iceberg?

It was enough to sink the Titanic


Unless the US and EU change their fuel efficiency testing to actual driving tests, aerodynamics will not play a major role.

[Cd]

Originally Posted by 2000mc

then the actual riviera boattail

i always thought that body style was epic... maybe not good, but epic

I thought everyone here was familiar with that car already.
You guys missed the " beauty shot " though :


Makes one wonder if you could use that glass on a boattail for your own car doesn't it ?
But that's a different topic.

[niky]

Originally Posted by Cd

I often wonder how a design like this one got accepted by the public.
This car certainly resembles a 'submarine' yet people bought it.

Sad that all that swoopy style was overdone, and the Cd actually stayed the same as the previous generation ( actually worse .32 vs .29 on a Sable ) All the angles were wrong for good aero on that car.

And the Taurus died (in that generation) while the CamCords of the world lived on... and on... and on... and...

The previous comment on the Prius... spot on. people were lionizing the Civic hybrid and Accord hybrid when they came out... why? Because they were eco-misers that looked like "real cars."

Dodge's "cab-forward" designs met with stiff resistance when they first came out, too.

Slowly but surely, automotive fashion is forcing people to accept sleeker noses, taller tails and more fluid shapes... by disguising them with gaping, mawish grilles (which, laughingly, are almost completely blocked off), gigantic headlamps, split-level trunks and huge wheels and wheel-wells.