1947 V2 Sagitta

[tazzieman]

Sick of the gibes that your old 911 is a glorified Beetle? Well it kinda looks similar.

Mine being green looks even more similar.

Some interesting aerodynamic facts.

http://www.carscoops.com/2013/03/1947-vw-beetle-based-v2-sagittar-is.html

 

[Harvs11]

Raw cd figures are like survey results.  They can be easily manipulated to sway an argument.  While the V2 is a slippery little sucker, there's no mention of how stable it is.  Modern cars include an amount of down force to keep them planted. This hurts the drag figures hence the higher numbers for newer models.  Especially those which can travel at warp speed.  

[tazzieman]

Raw cd figures are like survey results.  They can be easily manipulated to sway an argument.  While the V2 is a slippery little sucker, there's no mention of how stable it is.  Modern cars include an amount of down force to keep them planted. This hurts the drag figures hence the higher numbers for newer models.  Especially those which can travel at warp speed.  

Indeed you are on the ball Harvs! Just about every modern car figure quoted is "in the laboratory" and independent testers find results e.g. economy and , er emissions, to be inconsistent.

Mostly the public goes on raw data e.g. number of KW , and doesn't factor in power to weight or ride height. But that's OK , most people show the same ignorance/indifference when it comes to choosing kitchen and laundry appliances!

Sorry,  I was a 30 year Choice subscriber. I know all the tricks of the marketing trade.

Hey the V2 is cool. How much attention would you grab at any car show? Looks are everything at a car show ; like a fashion show the intelligence is not on parade. Car shows of the distant future unfortunately won't be very interesting. 

[Harvs11]

Don't apologise for being informed. There's too much ignorance out there.   It's projects like the V2 that helped to progress the theory to reality.  Very cool that it also created this lovely little car.  New technology doesn't have to be ugly (Prius). This car would also be a marketing tool for trying to get funding etc to take it to production. 

[tazzieman]

The whole story of Porsche racers and aerodynamic studies is fascinating. So much was "design the body around the chassis and engine , smooth out the rough edges and go racing". Each race was an experiment and aerodynamics as measured in the wind tunnel counted for little in the real world. It depended upon the type of race (hillclimb , endurance etc) and some of the drag coefficients were laughable. (0.45 anyone,  in the 908). Fixing lift & drag was a constant play between spoilers and winglets. The 917 was unplayable and several drivers refused to race it because of its extreme lift and dartiness. Despite all the experience with the 906s , 907s and 910s etc , the 917 was an enigma until someone played around with some aluminium sheets and duct tape on the track.  And this was around 1969! Wind tunnels had been around for decades and as we know Porsche had some pretty cluey engineers. At the end of the day it played out like a high school science experiment (my son studied Gurney flaps and built a wind tunnel on our pool table in grade 9!)

Amazing factory documents , graphs and race by race analysis of the physics of racing in this book. If you are mechanically anorakky or just quite curious , I highly recommend this volume. Whilst not exactly bedtime reading , I confess to having read it several times in the late evening 

[Harvs11]

If it's anything like Frere's "911 Story", I'm going book shopping. 

[tazzieman]

If it's anything like Frere's "911 Story", I'm going book shopping. 

It's as good , and in many ways better. If you're into that sort of thing.