Too bad I'll never find chloroplast in British Racing Green. :tongue: (Not to mention that it ripples when subjected to high amounts of wind resistance in small areas, not good for a race car!)
I'm thinking of using aluminum sheet for my planned bellypan, grill block, rear wing, and rear wheel skirts. I can paint that any color I want, and it will have dramatically reduced tendacy to ripple over chloroplast. I'll need to do some research, but my best guess is that it will be suitable for up to 160 mph. My electric car when all is said and done will be capable of 140-150 or so, depending on what wheel size I go with and its affects on overall gearing, electric motor RPM being the limiting factor.
Do you plan to install shaved door handle kits as well? Those will take another .005-.008 off your drag coefficient, and imo, would look really good. It is a mioderately expensive modification, costing a few hundred dollars.
Further, you should also change the wheels to something with a smooth cover or build covers from chloroplast to place over them, if your brakes won't overheat from decreased airflow. This could be done for cheap.
You also might want to look to installing windshield wipers with a smoother surface, and install windows that don't have that piece of rubber/plastic/whatever up front to disrupt the airflow. Cheap to moderately expensive.
And I'll be disappointed if you never attempt a rear wing, something that goes from the roof and is flush with the sides of the car. Basically, those triangular gaps after your straight cutoff in the rear would have a material over them, and your roofline would continue about 10-12 inches more, shaped as if it were part of an ellipse with length divided by height being 6. Trunk access may be an issue, depending on how creative you are. The idea would be to have a rear end similar to the Smart Roadster-Coupe, only optimized for the right finess ratio. Might be moderately expensive, unless you're willing to use chloroplast and not fiberglass or metal. Getting some pictures of how your trunk opens and closes will give me lots of ideas so that I might be able to share them.
There is also the possibility of a screen and camera replacing your driver side mirror. Would be expensive.
Last but not least, find some way to cover or reduce those seams. The seams on the roof, around the gas tank, around the trunk.
Tapered rear end and underbelly will be the most important upgrades anyone can make to their car. Just the underbelly alone is likely good for another .02-.04 reduced off of Cd. A tapered rear/roofline would have a larger impact than the grill block and bellypan combined, otoh, if you can implement it. Next comes the wheel skirts and grill block, both also significant. Given Krousedb's achievements on the underbelly and grill block, the effects show.
With all of these mods combined on top of what Krouse already has, it is not out of the question to get Cd around the .23-.25 level. But it wouldn't look much like a Del Sol anymore, even if one might be able to get 80+ mpg from it! Without a tapered rear end, Cd could get down to the .30 level.
Krouse, if you ever do get the car to that state, either it's time to add as large a turbodiesel as you can fit(improved power and efficiency), or electrify the son of a *****. A heavily aero modded small car has the capability to achieve 100 miles highway range per charge on lead acid batteries(or 150+ miles city range), if diesel powered, over 100 mpg. Best of all, a diesel engine opens the chance for B100 or SVO.
If the whole point is reducing gasoline consumption, why not eventually reduce the amount of gas consumed to zero?
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