.201 Cd with a brick
 

I posted some pictures that I took of a March 2002 Hot Rod magazine article that I thought you folks might find interesting. I was in a hurry to return the magazine to the library, so I just used the camera instead of the scanner ... sorry.
At least it will give you some idea of what was in the article.
You can find the images here https://www.flickr.com/photos/82006403@N00/

( Also be sure to read the comments below the image when you click on the image )


The article covers how that Hot Rod took an '81 Camaro and by adding a huge air dam and spoiler to the car got it to.201 Cd ... or close to that of the EV1 !

This just goes to show how unpredictable that airflow is. You can spend hundreds of hours rounding out corners and fitting belly pans to you car ..only to find that your .Cd has changed by a small amount - and then some dude in a beat up old car slaps a huge air-dam and spoiler to his car and beats you by several .Cd counts, leaving you in his low drag wake .

The car was already aerodynamic, its not a squared car or anything. Actually pretty teardrop shaped to begin with. I don't think .201 is correct though, I'm no expert but it just seems if a fighter jet is .25Cd how is an 81 camaro even possible to achieve .201. Sounds like B.S. Maybe if the skirt was draging the ground it would cut the Cd in half since there is 0 airflow beneath the vehicle. Either way I don't believe it.

Nice find. That certainly is impressive.

Actually the .201 is for the Salt Flats racer the avg Joe (black)Camaro with plain steelies was .292 ...Still Impressive ! I don't think it was b.s. - I'm old enough to remember the coverage in HRM -afterall I was a subscriber back then LOL

The car was still never a brick. Its frontal area is larger than an EV1 which means it still has more drag to deal with even with the same Cd. Cd is only part of the equation. You could design a bus with a Cd of .201. I know its an exaggeration, but if you used the components of a honda insight and stuck them in an 81 camaro, You could tell that .292 wasn't doing you much good without the gas burning displacement the camaro came with.

On the other hand if you produced a scale model 81 camaro to the insight's size. . .

. . . you could experiment with how many clowns will fit inside?

Nerds Laugh -

Gawd that's alot of work. Thank you very much. The "lower window cardboard" on the VX was funny because it was so easy to do. The half-tuft reduces the setup time.

Recycle Yourself!!!!!!!!!!!

CarloSW2

244 MPH-1981 Camaro at Bonneville. Link.
 

Eye-opening article. A car you wouldn't look at once, much less twice, when viewing aeodynamics as related to fuel economy. To me this demonstrates the value of having an open mind even after you've already decided to have a closed mind on some subjects. Thanks, Nerds laugh at me, for putting this up.

I realize this forum may not be the ideal place for this racing article. But I enjoyed reading it. Maybe you will too. I have been involved in racing all my life and have been a part of many similar thrashes in my time. The dedication and flat-out hard work required is sometimes super-human. Those virtues have served me well in my gas mileage quest. Perhaps there are lessons in here somewhere that will motivate us all in our pursuit of fuel economy.

https://www.hotrod.com/hotrod/projectbuild/113_0501_bonn

I don't know why you feel like your post is wrong. I love racing ... I just never have done it before myself.
I could care less for circle track and drag racing - it's too boring in my little opinion - All the cars look pretty much the same ( which is nothing like a true " stock " car , that is .... stock ... as in looks like a Ford Taurus or Chevy Monte Carlo. They even have to have stickers on the front to tell you what kind of car you are looking at.)
What excites me is top speed racing.
Some day I want to go flat out with a car at the Texas Mile.
Imagine a stock Civic hatchback that tops out at 115 MPH adding 15 - 20 MPH to its top speed on aero mods alone ... that would be cool.
The only thing that I don't like about racing is the excess pollution that it creates - That's why I 'm really excited to see a new wave of clean electric cars running 12's and under in the quarter mile.
Thanks for the link to the story. Thanks a bunch. Now everyone can read it.