6 ms·

That car looks remarkably non-aerodynamic for that insane speed.

• arethuza 7y ago
  I guess a lot of that comes from the need to feed its 10 radiators.
• nordsieck 7y ago
  > That car looks remarkably non-aerodynamic for that insane speed. It needs to balance low drag, down force, cooling, and probably a bunch of other factors. And it needs to look cool.
• TylerE 7y ago
  Many things that look very aerodynamic really aren’t, and vice versa. Much of fluid dynamics is non-intuitive.
  • noneeeed 7y ago
    Yeah, one of the lightbulb moments for me when learning more about aerodynamics and talking to my dad (former aircraft designer, workedon concorde) is how often what's happening at the back can be more important than what happens at the front, or how air leaves a surface can really bump up your drag in unexpected ways.
• Phillipharryt 7y ago
  It has a horrendous drag coefficient, worse than a prius (not that they are a the worst car, but they're not sporty). It needs this to cool and feed the engine.
  • et2o 7y ago
    I hate to nitpick, but a Prius isn't a great comparison since they have pretty good drag coefficients.
    • Phillipharryt 7y ago
      Yeah I did clarify it's not the worst, it's a smooth vehicle but it's got pretty bad turbulence at the rear due to that flat back, so it's no aerodynamic masterpiece. I only use that comparison because it's a bog-standard car and can't get anywhere near 300mph, so it might surprise people to know it has better aerodynamics.
      • et2o 7y ago
        Not sure what you mean... A Prius is actually one of the single best production cars around in terms of aerodynamics (Cd around 0.24). That stubby tail is actually done on purpose because it reduces drag, not increases it as you claim. A lot of aerodynamics are pretty counterintuitive. Look at the big table of drag coefficients here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile_drag_coefficient https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile_drag_coefficient For the Bugatti, they probably weren't going for an ultimate low drag coefficients. They need to make sure their giant engine is getting enough air, which leads to lower performing shapes. Related, they also will want a lot of downforce to make sure the car stays on the road at high speeds; to do this they build a relatively non-aerodynamic car.
        • Phillipharryt 7y ago
          Ok I hate to do this, but you're wrong about the tail reducing drag instead of increasing it. The rear of the prius has a design feature to reduce the effect of the turbulent wake created by having a flat rear, but it still has a large vertical surface at the rear creating a lot of wake. You can clearly see this in a wind tunnel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov0iNPfs-WM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov0iNPfs-WM
          • et2o 7y ago
            Nope, do not believe so. The short tail with a vertical back is called the Kamm effect. It's a mix between having a practical design and minimizing drag. The numbers do not lie; there is a reason the Prius has an extremely low drag coefficient. Just think this through on a systems level. Obviously Toyota's engineers are not idiots and would use whatever aerodynamic effects they would since the entire point of the car is maximizing efficiency. If it was more efficient to have a different shape while still remaining a practical automobiu, it would. The entire design of the Prius revolves around this.