A popular automotive term of the '80s and '90s was “FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION,” which was kinda funny given that it took Detroit forty years to start paying close attention to what the aircraft and auto racing industries had been practicing for twenty years earlier. Detroit had always put “design” ahead of aero function. Airplane and auto racing industries had known for decades that true form following function improves speed, handling and stability.
Once the automotive industry finally took notice, driven in large party the need for improved fuel milage, they took it to heart. The exterior shape of production vehicles evolved rapidly and cars and even trucks and vans got smoother, sleeker and more aero-efficient, and sure enough, mileage and performance improved.
What surprises a lot of people is the is fine detail of what goes into refining vehicle aero design. I once wrote and article when I was a staffer at Motor Trend Magazine back in the late '80s that under body aero going to the next for more development. We got mail declaring me insane, but just two years later, I was proven right. Detroit had caught onto airflow management over the car, but race car designers were already controlling the air going under the car. Examine the underbody of a '60s, '70s or early '80s production vehicle and you’d be greeted by a real mess of suspension components, driveline parts, rear ends, exhaust and even fuel tanks hanging down to disrupt airflow.
Then a breakthrough: Production cars designers starting speaking with their own company’s race teams and learned that they were already working to limit the amount air permitted under the vehicle and once it was there forcing it to run along the bottom of the while trapped and not allowed to escape until it reached the rear of the car. That trick produces a more efficient vehicle. Look under today’s vehicles and you’ll see a nearly perfectly flat and clean surface with all the components smoothed and leveled so as to not create drag. It’s not an easy job, but the goal of improved milage and stability requires design and engineering involvement for both the top AND bottom of the vehicle.
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