![]() ![]() ![]() Air dams and spoilers are effective countermeasures. ![]() Lift: Air flowing over and under the car and through the grille can diminish wheel loading and, in extreme cases, deteriorate handling. We used a 200-mm camera lens positioned 150 feet from the vehicle to take a digital photo, which we analyzed using Siemens Solid Edge CAD software. It increases with the cube of velocity, so aero power at 100 mph is 2.9 times the power requirement at 70 mph.ĭrag Area: The product of the drag coefficient and frontal area is the best measure of any car’s aero performance because it’s directly proportional to the horizontal force measured in a wind tunnel and experienced on the road.ĭrag Coefficient (CD): A dimensionless parameter used to quantify aerodynamic efficiency in the horizontal (drag) plane.įrontal Area: The largest horizontal view of a car. With that, we humbly present our first ever aero comparo.Īerodynamic Horsepower: The power required to drive a vehicle through the atmosphere (not including driveline and tire-rolling losses). Our winner here will be the car with the lowest drag area, which is the product of the shape’s frontal area and its drag coefficient and the true measure of a car’s wind-cheating ability. Half a century after Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in flight, Andy Green drove his ThrustSSC a satisfying 763 mph across Nevada’s Black Rock desert. Grand Prix racers took up the cause in the early 1920s the following decade, Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz raced toward 300 mph with streamliners developed in German wind tunnels. The first car to crack 60 mph (in 1899) was an electrically propelled torpedo on wheels called, hilariously, “La Jamais Contente” (“The Never Satisfied”). ![]() Inspired by birds and airships, early speed demons also toyed with streamlined shapes. Long before automotive engineers fretted over aerodynamics, aviation pioneers defined the basic principles of drag and lift. Aerodynamics-the study of air in motion-can lift our top speeds, curb our fuel consumption, and, if we’re smart about it, keep our tires stuck to the pavement. The gentle murmur of air streaming over, under, and through your car belies the wind’s heinous ways.Įven if there’s no alternative to driving through Earth’s atmosphere, we can at least fight wind resistance with science. Like a thief in the night, wind resistance is a stealthy intruder that saps your speed and murders your mileage without leaving fingerprints. From the June 2014 Issue of Car and Driver ![]()
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