Steve,
I'm shocked. I've heared for years, and as recently as today told my
customers, that the reason for having an air deflector under the front
bumper is to keep the air away from all that stuff under the car so they
get better gas milage. Heck, I've heard this from what I thought were
reliable sources. Are you telling me now that in the wind tunnel it doesn't
work, and the only real reason for the air deflector is a curb feeler when
angle parking? I suppose next you'll tell me Elvis is dead!
Doug Leithauser
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I don't know that our cars are can not just as well "guestimated" from
similar
designs where the numbers are available, such as the MGB,
TR6, etc. They are all, generally, a little bit better than a piece of
plywood
of the same frontal area. Those air dams help hold the car on the
road better, and maybe improve air flow thru the radiator, but they don't
affect the drag much. Thing is, the biggest influence on drag is the
part your not looking at (although the top being up is a big help) and that
is
the "under carriage". This mess of lumps, bumps, pockets,
beams, and rotating masses is the biggest contributor to drag of the car.
In
the record cars (yes, even the prototype of my Jaguar XK120 )
had FULL belly pans, and full wheel covers (on the rear) and steel wheels
(not
wire). Almost every record holder I know of does this, and
nobody can drive them on the street. You think the Austin-Healy was bad?
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