Kevin Shasteen Posted July 11, 2003 Share Posted July 11, 2003 For posterity's sake, here is a site I came across while surfing the web. It lists a whole slew of Cd's for different veh's. http://www.teknett.com/pwp/drmayf/tbls.htm This site should help those who may have built a custom car & dont know the Cd of that car; now you can find a similar car's Cd & get somewhat close by mathing another car's Cd whose front end is somewhat similar. And No, this site doesnt list the Cd for our Z's...but we, HybridZ, has already listed the 1st genZ's Cd in other threads-so do a search for that or someone here should have that info readily available: just ask if you need it. Kevin, (Yea,Still an Inliner) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David K Posted July 11, 2003 Share Posted July 11, 2003 280zx CD 0.340 Area (m2 ) 1.827 Area (ft2 ) 19.67 Cd x m2 0.62 Cd x ft2 6.69 Im sorry but im lost in all this jargon. Anybody care to explain? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted July 12, 2003 Share Posted July 12, 2003 280zx OK, you probably got this part. CD 0.340 Coefficient of drag. Its used in a lot of fluid mechanics calculations. It is equal to: (Drag force)/((1/2)*fluid density*velocity^2*size scale^2) Area (m2 ) 1.827 Frontal area of the car in square meters. Basically if you took a silhouette of the car and measured the area of the shaded part... The next one is in square feet instead of square meters. Cd x m2 0.62 Pretty self expanitory... Coeficient of drag times frontal area. Next one is in square feet for you non-metric types. I didn't realize the 280zx was so much better than the early Z aerodynamically... (the early Z has a Cd of ~0.45) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Shasteen Posted July 12, 2003 Author Share Posted July 12, 2003 I remember the ZX being better than the Z but I dont remember it being .34: I remember reading it as being .38....? Something is amiss here. Perhaps maybe we could verify this w/a second source: just to be sure! Kevin, (Yea,Still an Inliner) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Thurem Posted July 15, 2003 Share Posted July 15, 2003 Drax I didn't realize the 280zx was so much better than the early Z aerodynamically... (the early Z has a Cd of ~0.45) You have to remember the formula for looks, the Z looks about 3 times better than the ZX, so we have for the Z 0.45*1=0.45 and the ZX 0.34*3=1.02 clearly the Z comes out way on top, looking way sleeker. (sorry ZX'ers, could not help myself) Thure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted July 15, 2003 Share Posted July 15, 2003 the ferrari 456 and the 3rd gen rx7 are around .290. That is quite slick, if only our Z's were that aerodynamic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudge Posted July 16, 2003 Share Posted July 16, 2003 .34 is actually pretty darn respectable, although larger cars nowdays (Camaro) can achieve the same number with more frontal area, but better aero. C5 Vette without the brake ducting is .29 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j260z Posted July 23, 2003 Share Posted July 23, 2003 here is some info on the z aerodynamics http://www.zccw.org/Tech/Body/09-97EarlyZAerodynamics.html here's one on aerodynamics http://www.mulsannescorner.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest comeandzpa Posted July 23, 2003 Share Posted July 23, 2003 some of the current cars (exact examples slip my mind....) get even lower than that. I think the Mercedes coupe hits as low as .26. Pretty impressive, if you ask me. Wonder what their G-wagen is, or the H2 hits? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DaneL24 Posted August 1, 2003 Share Posted August 1, 2003 Those sleek headlight covers should definitely help with the frontal aerodynamics of a Z. The area under the grill probably catches a lot of air too, causing more drag. The only major problem I see other than the headlight design is how the rear hatch slopes smoothly and then turns straight down...must make quite a bit of turbulence and suction effect behind the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest rick458 Posted August 1, 2003 Share Posted August 1, 2003 would a rear spoiler help on the turbulence AND with the exhaust inversion prob? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afshin Posted August 3, 2003 Share Posted August 3, 2003 the Z's Cd was 0.467, for the 280ZX they spent six months refining the design using a wind tunnel to get the Cd down to 0.385 which was a major leap forward for it's time. Additionaly lift was reduced by 60% and sidewind stability was significantly improved. (I got this info from Brian Long's book called datsun 280zx/nissan 300zx) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest comeandzpa Posted August 8, 2003 Share Posted August 8, 2003 as an interesting side note, the new Mercedes-Benz Maybach (weight-6000+ lbs) has a cD of .30....0-60 in 4.9, 1/4 in 13.9. Amazing...... Sorry, I misread the specs. the 1/4 time is 13.4, not 13.9. Sorry for the confusion! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zolorin Posted September 4, 2003 Share Posted September 4, 2003 to be more exact the drag coefficient is calculated to be Cd = Cdo + K*Cl^2 Cdo = zero lift drag (an object being in the way, sort off) Cl = is lift coefficient K = 1/ (AR*e*pi) == look up in the Aero books you will find this AR = aspect ratio, for siplicity ratio of length of the car vs. width of the car so for cars is is much smaller then 1 and for wings it is the other way around. there fore wider is better. If you kill most of the lift you will reduce drag, my desire is to do some profile calculation and tell you how low can we go on the drag. and 0.475 for first gen Z, you are all killing me, no wonder it is almost flying Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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