Breeaking The Drag Coeffiecient Barrier

by Tonami Playman - Date: 2007-03-30 - Word Count: 256 Share This!

Wind Tunnels have helped the aeronautic and automobile industry reduce drag by designing shapes that lower drag coefficients. Aerodynamics was taken seriously in automobiles in the late 20s-mid 30s and some car makers have used the wind tunnel to design their cars. The earliest examples of this include the Chrysler Airflow, Tatra cars from Czech republic. These were some of the first cars to use aerodynamics to their advantage.

The influence of aerodynamics have been both functional and stylistic. We have seen the average drag coefficients (CD) of cars drop to around 0.30 which is very impressive, but since then there has been a stagnation as car makers focus more on other things and put aerodynamics to the side. Most of the newer cars from the aerodynamic champions Mercedes and Lexus have a higher drag coefficient than their preceding model which is a step backward.

Some cars have stood out with exemplary CDs. Among them, the Audi A2 with 0.25-0.28, the Lexus LS430 with 0.25, the Honda insight with 0.25, Toyota Prius with 0.26 and the Honda European Accord with 0.26. Unfortunately all these cars except the Prius and the Honda accord are no longer in production. Car makers should be striving for lower number in-cooperating clever designs that use wind tunnel data to bring about more aerodynamic cars lowering fuel economy to a greater degree. Now is the time to break the cd .20 barrier and move the aerodynamics of cars to another level. nature has used this to its advantage its about time we catch up.

Related Tags: eco, fuel economy, aerodynamics, drag coefficient

Tonami Playman is a computer science student at Knoxville college. He is an avid information consumer and contributer in computer and automotive circles.

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