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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!inuxc!ralph
From: ralph@inuxc.UUCP (Ralph Keyser)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: Drag coefficient
Message-ID: <922@inuxc.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 7-Mar-84 09:28:54 EST
Article-I.D.: inuxc.922
Posted: Wed Mar  7 09:28:54 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 8-Mar-84 07:45:56 EST
References: <325@hou2h.UUCP> <578@u1100a.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Consumer Products Div., Indianapolis
Lines: 12

I think it is a reasonably well accepted fact that clean vehicles are
in fact "faster". How much faster is the real question, and that has
to do with how fast the vehicle goes since aerodynamic drag is an
exponential kinda function. For a light aircraft (cruise at 150 mph),
a clean one is about 2-3 mph faster than a dirty one (with dead bugs
along the leading edges), so a car isn't likely to see as much of a
gain. So you can say that a clean car is faster, but in truth, the
reason for washing your car is more for better looks than more
speed.

				Ralph Keyser
				...!ihnp4!inuxc!ralph