Keith Seymore
Full Access Member
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2015
- Posts
- 2,636
- Reaction score
- 8,109
- Location
- Motor City
- First Name
- Keith Seymore
- Truck Year
- 1987
- Truck Model
- R10
- Engine Size
- 4.3L
Well said, and well observed.
Aero is a funny thing. Some of the smallest changes make a big difference in combination with other changes. What’s scary is that you can be making improvements on one end and losing it unintentionally somewhere else without realizing it.
When we were doing the Chevy Volt we did a baseline measurement of our early production cars. We lost five counts of aero for no apparent reason. As we investigated we found the cars were building 5 mm higher than design intent. We dropped them back down, reclaimed the five counts, and were able to advertise .284 for aerodynamic drag ( which was a big deal since it it was the slipperiest production sedan ever produced).
Or – one of my favorites – we decided to use the parking lights on the front of the GMT800 Trucks as a cold air intake. It didn’t work. When we smoked them we found the air was flowing in the inboard side of the opening and right back out of the outboard side of the opening.
K
Aero is a funny thing. Some of the smallest changes make a big difference in combination with other changes. What’s scary is that you can be making improvements on one end and losing it unintentionally somewhere else without realizing it.
When we were doing the Chevy Volt we did a baseline measurement of our early production cars. We lost five counts of aero for no apparent reason. As we investigated we found the cars were building 5 mm higher than design intent. We dropped them back down, reclaimed the five counts, and were able to advertise .284 for aerodynamic drag ( which was a big deal since it it was the slipperiest production sedan ever produced).
Or – one of my favorites – we decided to use the parking lights on the front of the GMT800 Trucks as a cold air intake. It didn’t work. When we smoked them we found the air was flowing in the inboard side of the opening and right back out of the outboard side of the opening.
K
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