Date:         Wed, 01 May 96 00:01:10 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Re: aerodynamics (Seriously...)

On Tue, 30 Apr 1996 21:49:35 -0500 Robert Crawford said:
>A dumb question on this subject.

the only "dumb" question, on any subject on this list, is the one you
do NOT ask ... cause you'll never get any answer for that one. ;)

>would puting an airdam over the back door of the vanagon (like the ones that
>ford and chevy put over the hatches of thier '70s station wagons) help the
>vanagon's aerodynamics or woud it just look dumb.

as i recall, those 70's "wings" or airdams or whatever were for the purpose
of keeping the rear window cleaner (by blowing off the dust and preventing
the swirling up of road dirt/dust from under the car). i don't know if they
were supposed to help the aerodynamics much.

as to putting them on buses, some of the german catalogs have them for
buses, vanagons, and eurovans. but i think it's mostly "show", not for
effectiveness.

don't know about LOOKING dumb ... some rear spoilers look crappy (imho) on
some cars, and other cars have good looking ones. it all depends on your
personal preferences and the car/spoiler in question.

the thing that bothers me the most about those things is that you have to
drill holes in the exterior of the bus to attach them. :(  after putting
a looooong (about 8 feet) CB antenna on the side of my 71 bus, years ago,
and getting beat to death by it every time i stopped suddenly ... well,
i get kinda nervous about cutting holes in the roof or sides. :)

joel