Cobra vs Today's Cars

[Tommy]

I'd like to add a comment solely on the topic of aerodynamics. Back when I was earning my degree in aerospace engineering, I learned about the big step forward aircraft design took when they went from bi-planes to single wing planes. The advance was made possible primarily by advances in metallurgy and wing design/construction that allowed a single wing to be as strong as two wings tied together by a network of struts and wires. The new mono-wing aircraft were immediately much faster than the bi-planes primarily because they didn't have all the struts and wires. Wind tunnel tests demonstrated that even something as small as a wire produces significant drag. I think of that whenever I see a car with lots of things protruding from it. KMP259 looks like it does a good job of keeping air from getting under the nose, and the rear wing might do some good at high enough speeds. But I can't help but wonder if all the struts sticking out in the wind offset some of those advantages. It would take a Formula 1 super computer to calculate the wind flow reaching the wing after it swirled over the nose, the windscreen, the roll bar, the head rest and the wing struts.