Aerodynamic wheel spats & Mirage

[Polkiuj]

Hi!

Was looking at my Mirage and notice it's got some nice wheel spats to direct airflow. Nice touch but I have some questions. The spat only spans till halfway (somewhere in the middle of the tire). Is this the best for aero or is there a better way?

[Daox]

I'm pretty sure the spats on my other cars are similar, even the ones on my Prius don't extend the full width of the tire I don't think.

[MetroMPG]

Keep in mind that the air flowing toward the exposed forward part of the front tires isn't necessarily coming from straight ahead. The shape of the front of the car influences air flow hitting the tires, causing it to flow outward & down as well.

The placement of the spats is quite precise. Volvo did testing that showed the location, size & angle of front wheel spats on one of their cars was very sensitive. Make the spats too large, or placed in the wrong spot, and they aren't nearly as effective.

See the table of testing/results here:

http://www.autospeed.com/cms/article.html?&A=2456

See also:

Thread: Aerodynamics of the new Mirage (.27-.31 drag coefficient varies with options)

[Polkiuj]

Wow! The article looks awesome!

Makes me wanna try it

[Polkiuj]

I just took a look at the bottom of the Mirage and it seems that it is already pretty clean. Not much gains to be had there..