World Cup flags

[Canoehead]

According to the CBC radio this morning, some English Engineer calculated two of the small national flags on a car driving 110km/h will use an additional 1L of fuel per hour.

I call BS based on all the many variables involved and the suggestion that it is a blanket 1L/hour difference, but interesting in that it gets less thoughtful people engaged in thinking about aerodynamics.

[MetroMPG]

I remember this story popping up around hockey playoff time. It gets recycled periodically.

If you want to do a little more digging...

The British research paper's title is "What is the fuel wastage from the flag on your vehicle?" by Dr. Antonio Filippone of Manchester University. I did a quick search but didn't find the actual paper.

A Canadian engineering professor corroborated it:

Dr. Peter Ostafichuk, a senior instructor at the University of B.C.'s mechanical engineering faculty, said his calculations matched those of Filippone's

source: http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/n...d-aac82c942f04

[Ares]

This should be easy to test no?

Gas up without flag.
Do a predetermined route.
Gas up to see the difference.

Put flag on.
Do the same predetermined route.
Gas up to see the difference.

????

Profit

[Canoehead]

This should be easy to test no?

Gas up without flag.
Do a predetermined route.
Gas up to see the difference.

Put flag on.
Do the same predetermined route.
Gas up to see the difference.

????

Profit

Hard to account for all the variables, though. Lets say you had a flag of a winning team like Germany - you might be driving slower, which would help fuel efficiency, but with the windows rolled down, doing laps around your American friend's neighbourhood with your head out the window singing songs of victory. Should your team lose, you might save gas by staying home and consuming several ounces of ethanol instead of burning gasoline in your car. Just too many variables to have a definitive number, I am saying.

Personally, I have no flags on my car. I do like the Christmas reindeer antlers, and have considered a boss hog style set of Texas longhorns, but haven't installed either yet.