Date:         Wed, 2 Nov 94 17:12:20 PST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Jan Allbright <jallbrig@hpwrc713.mayfield.hp.com>
Subject:      RE: mpg enhancements

> 
> Bill Kennedy asks:
> > 
> > I'm especially
> > interested in items like cutting off the rain gutters at the edge of the wind-
> > shield, adding the $79 spoiler that JCWitless sells, adding 2-in. wide "ears"
> > at the air intakes for better engine cooling, converting to or from FI, in-
> > creasing or decreasing tire pressures, fiberglasing in the grill (*top* grill
> > for you waterpumpers), lowering the ride height.
> 
> A long time ago, there was a thread about how you could convert a snub-nosed
> air-pusher like our vans into a sleek TGV/Bullet Train aerodynamic wonder.
> 
> Someone posted that you could take a cone of suitable size, put it on
> a pole of suitable length, and stick it to the front of the van (like
> the knights of old).  This gives the same drag coefficient as a solid
> mass of the same length, but with a nice bullet nose.  I'm pretty
> sure there's even some scanned photos of drawings of someone's research
> that "proved" that putting a more rounded nose on a bus drops its coefficient
> of drag dramatically on the vanagon web homepage. 
> 
> Anyway, lately I've been thinking about putting that pole with a plate
> or cone on the end on my van's nose, and see how fast I can go.  Right now,
> wind drag increases as I approach 90mph.  I don't think I've been above
> 90 (maybe on a downhill?)
> 
> -Jim
> 

On this same though ... all you really need is a pole with a small cone
on it's tip. The purpose is to _bend_ the airflow above and around
the rather _un_ areo shape of the bus nose..old jet fighters use
to have these "probes" on their nose to punch through the air...

size and configuration of the pole and small cone left to student 8) 

--
/----------------------------------+------------------------------------\
|       Mr. Jan C. Allbright       |      Hewlett-Packard Company       |
|   North American Response Center |     100 Mayfield Ave. MS 37UM      |
|        UNIX Networks Group       |      Mountain View, Ca. 94043      |
|      jallbrig@mayfield.hp.com    |            415.691.3026            |
\--------------------(Opinions Expressed Are My Own)--------------------/