Quote:
Originally Posted by F_R_O_G
the point i'm trying to make is that the manufacture made the bodypanels the way they are for a reason and for someone without a international auto company backing them up it would be very hard to improve on.
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Aerodynamics is the last thing a typical auto manufacturer is thinking about while designing a car. You're giving those engineers a little too much credit. Much more prominent concerns for them are visual appearance, manufacturing ease, marketability, cost, etc. All too often, aerodynamics are at best improved by accident.
Just look at cars like the Audi TT- they designed the car with no thought whatsoever to the aerodynamic properties of the rear end, then they found that their cars were spinning off the road and crashing as drivers exceeded 100mph because the massive amount of lift at the back end of the car nearly pulled the rear wheels off the ground. They had to go back to the drawing board and add a spoiler to the back of the car, which was little more than a patch on a fundamental design flaw.
If automakers cared- I mean
really cared about aerodynamics, cars on the road today would be getting 50+% better fuel economy on the highway.