AutoblogGreen

1. "Right now, basjoos estimates, his drag coefficient has dropped from the original 0.34 to 0.17 (besting the super slippery EV1's 0.19, as our tipster Darin pointed out)"

Nope, it is not slippery as the EV1, as I "estimated" the EV1 to have been 0.16.

Posted at 4:46PM on Dec 27th 2007 by Dad

2. '"GM May 1990 Issue Update video about the phenomenal Impact (EV1) prototype development program, testing, and future possibilities for ... all electric vehicles. The Impact prototype and EV1s had the lowest Coefficient of Drag (Cd = 0.19) of any production vehicle."'

- http://www.seattleeva.org/wiki/GM_EV1

Posted at 5:30PM on Dec 27th 2007 by Benjamin Jones

3. "Nope, it is not slippery as the EV1, as I "estimated" the EV1 to have been 0.16."

I did say it was my "estimate" so I don't have to have pesky little facts get in the way ;-) I can speculate just like basjoos when he "estimated" his coefficient of drag of 0.17.

Posted at 6:16PM on Dec 27th 2007 by Dad

4. If you're at all interested in his methods, you can look here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Measure-the-drag-coefficient-of-your-car/

Posted at 6:33PM on Dec 27th 2007 by Benjamin Jones

5. With that kind of MPG, who cares what the drag is?

Someday, all cars will look like this. Well, maybe not _exactly_ like this, but similar :)

Posted at 7:34PM on Dec 27th 2007 by Kardax

6. Dad, basjoos may have fallen on his sword with his estimates. But, at the very least, he didn't miss the point.

Basjoos has a set of data to support his estimation - it's not just looking at it and saying "ya, {number from my butt}." Even with his set of data, he was so kind as to call it an estimation - and not automatically take data and call rename them as fact ;)

Posted at 10:00PM on Dec 27th 2007 by tre

7. Still a ricer...

Posted at 2:45AM on Dec 28th 2007 by TIMMAH!

8. you say ricer like its a bad thing. LOL

L

Posted at 8:54AM on Dec 28th 2007 by calebe

9. This is a remarkable accomplishment for someone who presumably did not have the benefit of a supercomputer running computational fluid dynamics, or a wind tunnel.

I wonder where he would now be if he had started with the VX version that is got about 20% better EPA rating from the factory...

Posted at 9:33AM on Dec 28th 2007 by GoodCheer

10. I'd really hate to try and parallel park that thing. Where are the taillights?

Posted at 10:59AM on Dec 28th 2007 by grant.robertson

11. @ Grant: the tail lights are in the tip of the boattail. You can only see the side marker light in the above pic, but there are many more detailed photos available if you click through to the site.

--

The thing I like about the Aerocivic isn't the car itself, but the way it illustrates - in, um, dramatic fashion - the huge impact of aero on highway speed efficiency.

Yes it looks weird. But that's subjective.

What's weirder to me is how we're content to buy & drive giant boxes on wheels @ 80 mph down our freeways while simultaneously complaining about the price of gas.

Posted at 12:41PM on Dec 28th 2007 by MetroMPG.com

12. Time to re-evaluate those aero-bubble prototypes from the late 80's and early 90's.
Damn it would be great to get even half of that milege.

Posted at 5:57PM on Dec 28th 2007 by SPG

13. Gives me some idea of what the four wheel Aptera will look like. (yes, Aptera is planning a future 4 wheel version)

This could use some fitting and finish work, but the basic design layout is sound.

Posted at 7:02PM on Dec 28th 2007 by Chris M

14. Nobody actually believes this do they? If you do, please take a course in fluid dynamics, or put down your bongs.

Posted at 5:07PM on Dec 29th 2007 by saysee

15. There is only so much that aerodynamics can do. I do not believe it could do THAT much.. I---LOL

Posted at 8:14PM on Jan 4th 2008 by Alex Everett

16. Very interesting. It seems from the forum that almost any car's gas mileage can be improved by lowering the amount of drag on the car, even a model T back in the 1930's. Which makes me wonder why they don't do this in the first place, being as you could have very fuel efficient cars with also very good performance. Actually many car companies, like VW are going backwards and making less fuel efficient, more boxy cars.

Posted at 8:06PM on Jan 5th 2008 by Brooke

17. Fuel mileage is just about weight, drag and engine efficiency. A carbon fiber shell running on bike tires and never exceeding 30mph could get over 200 MPG with a small diesel. but this car is drivable if a little funny looking. If someone took a mold of the EV1, put a turbo diesel from a VW polo in it and made the body out of fiberglass of carbon. 120+ MPG would be reasonable and even drivable. WTF do aesthetics matter anyways. Lets mandate cars to be butt ugly so that people don't want to be seen in them, then maybe they will walk or ride their bike.

Now if you want to talk about "safty" that is what is making cars heavy. Fear.

Posted at 5:20PM on Feb 8th 2008 by Jeremiah Grim

18. 95 MPG?? While aerodynamics can play a big part in fuel economy, I doubt he gets that much. I could believe 50-55, but unless I see it in person, I just can't believe that.

I looked at the pictures, and there are several places (especially in the front) that need to be smoothed out, as the edges would cause some aero-drag.

I also wonder how it handles once he approaches highway speeds? With the rear end being shaped like it is, that's gotta take away from his downforce which *should* make the car behave somewhat "skittish", especially if he were to drive it on some crappy highways like here in Missouri.

If his 'style' really does help fuel economy, then why don't we see anything shaped like this in NASCAR? They spend millions (between all the teams) in wind tunnels every year and have aerodynamic specialists. I'm just sayin'...

I applaud his efforts on this extremely unique undertaking, I just think that the report is a bit exaggerated. I could be wrong, but that's why they call this the "Show Me" state. LOL

Posted at 9:07PM on Apr 5th 2008 by Razor

19. The reason you don't see anything like that in 'nascar' is because well... first off, nascar is retarded, but more importantly, nascar is about high performance cars, not high mileage cars. They spend time in the wind tunnel to find a shape that is decently slippery, but provides a LOT of downforce. This guy doesn't care about downforce, in fact, he'd probably like to reduce it a bit to get load of the tires.

Posted at 12:57PM on Apr 22nd 2008 by Rob