[ikonn]

Engineers out there, riddle me this:

Why would the M850i with it’s sleek looking body, low height, and apparent relatively small frontal area, have a drag coefficient of 0.33…which is worse than the previous 650i 0.29?

And compared to some sedans out there like:
- Q50 0.26
- new S Class 0.24
- Model S 0.24
- E Class 0.23

And even the 5 series and 7 series sedans of 0.22 to 0.24.

Are looks that deceiving? And if you were designing the new G15, wouldn’t you have the goal to reduce drag even further? I mean 0.33 is not bad I guess but this is already a heavy car and I don’t think it needs more down force!

[snowbimmer]

Originally Posted by ikonn

Engineers out there, riddle me this:

Why would the M850i with it’s sleek looking body, low height, and apparent relatively small frontal area, have a drag coefficient of 0.33…which is worse than the previous 650i 0.29?

And compared to some sedans out there like:
- Q50 0.26
- new S Class 0.24
- Model S 0.24
- E Class 0.23

And even the 5 series and 7 series sedans of 0.22 to 0.24.

Are looks that deceiving? And if you were designing the new G15, wouldn’t you have the goal to reduce drag even further? I mean 0.33 is not bad I guess but this is already a heavy car and I don’t think it needs more down force!

Just spitballin' here, but it probably has less to do with the sleek looks up front and more to do with getting the air off the back of the car. The air probably creates eddys and vortices as it passes the back, creating a small vacuum.......and increasing drag.

The good news is that is that if you are following an 8, you can probably get up real close for a good draft, Nascar style.