Nowadays efficiency, better consumption, environmental driving are the main issues of automotive industry. And every new car is trying to minimize their consumption figures by lowering their resistance to air. Air and consumption! Let me define this very basic; if a car looks like a box without any softer edges, it will consume more fuel. Because, box designed car will have more resistance to air than softer one! Cars like Mercedes G Class, Land Rover Discovery are hopeless for efficiency. However this resistance has more impact on consumption after 120km/h.
As the speed increases, car’s resistance to air increases. Therefore, sexier looking car will less resistance to air than Mercedes G Class. Actually, anything different than G Class and Discovery has less resistance.
This new cw value, defines the resistance to air, is a very good marketing tool. And marketing departments are packing a very old stuff like a new stuff! The lowest cw, air resistance value production car is the Mercedes E Coupe. This new Mercedes with pre historic gearbox is offering cw value of 0,24. That’s the lowest one on market :) And you will be thinking; Mercedes engineer’s did this after very hard working etc etc etc. Actually, this number is not the lowest one. (Actually I really like the new E Coupe, I don’t care about it cw value, I would buy it!).
In 1934, Prague Auto Show hosted the Tatra 77. This was powered by 3,4lt V8 engine with an impressive air resistance of 0,212. cw value of 0,212 in 1934. And in 2010, the lowest one is 0,24.No Comment!
Pictures are from
Mercedes Website
Land Rover Website
Wikipedia