Aerodynamic panels, questions/ideas for improving CD and mpg of 6g Options

[ricochet1490]

Has anyone ever heard of addition panels to improve the coefficient of drag (cd) of our cars? Sites like ecomodder have all the people making stupid looking stuff to gain mpg, but imo our cars look too good for that to happen. So I was thinking, what if we made panels that either A) looked good on the car, or B) couldn't be "readily seen" - aka made out of lexan or something.

Any Thoughts, ideas? I think if we could shape some clear panels to deflect air around our bucket head lights, and some to keep the air off the spoiler (but still using the spoiler for mounting/looks), we could probably gain at least a few mpg. It might be worth looking into if some cheap lexan could be found.

[ricochet1490]

unless no plastic covers are creating a parachute effect somewhere.... in which case you maybe also losing acceleration. lets face it, you could lose a 1/2 lb on the car based on whether or not you are wearing jeans or shorts....

Long story short, without wind-tunnel or advanced flow software modeling, it's going to be hard to quantify improvement or problems caused by not having plastic underpanels, and for the purpose of this topic, adding panels to improve (reducing) your coefficient of drag (CD).

The simple F=ma is what you are looking at because the F is actually summation(F), where all of the forces acting on the body, in this case the car, are added up. So if your Fd(force drag) is increased, that means your forward force vector is smaller. With that being smaller, acceleration drops.... but it likely only becomes a problem at highway speeds. 0-45 difference is negligible with or without plastic under covers.....