I have been looking at single seat race cars for inspiration and although F1 cars have really bad CdA figures that is in part due for the need to have huge downforce and air intakes to cool a high output power plant.
The F1 tub by itself has to protect the driver but also allow the smooth flow of air to the wings, foils and intakes. If we take away these downforce/cooling aids (by the way they are not aerodynamic aids!) we are left with the tub/driver pod.
I quickly modelled up a velomobile with similar design to a F1 tub and put it through the CFD. It made for some astonishing results.
The frontal area calculated out to be 0.32m2 and the Cd was 0.28! put these two together and I got a CdA of just 0.0896 !!!
Although this figure is higher than my older design which had a CdA of 0.07. It really is an interesting comparison and with this "Open Wheel" design it could be made a lot lighter and easier to produce and also have a smaller turning circle. This could be a great design for a practical everyday velomobile.
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