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Phido's Model 3 and reducing drag experiments

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Hi Yall,

I have recently purchased a 2023 Tesla Model 3 Long Range. Obviously a fantastic car and I am very happy with it. Its fast, its efficient, its practical, its long ranged. Its awesome.

However, I don't know what it is, but I really want to play and experiment with reducing drag on the car, not for any particularly productive reason, I'm not overtly interested in increasing range, or lowering operating costs. I guess I am just interested if there is any way to improve on the already significantly aerodynamically good Model 3.

Nothing expensive, just cardboard, flute board and masking tape. Nothing permanent or extensive. I am just curious where gains can be made, by how much and what that would look like. Many of the aerodynamic compromises are to serve other purposes, no one likes wheel spats, so they used air curtains, but spats could be fitted and then you wouldn'tneed the curtain, the front is designed to channel air into the cooling and wheel curtains, not perhaps to be the most aerodynamic shape on its own. A boat tail is impractical, but gains could be had.

Below is a picture attached, maybe rounding out and protruding the nose, blocking most of the cooling duct, rear (and maybe front) wheel spats, and a bit of a boat tail to clean up the air out the back. Maybe some soft rubber skirting. Maybe moondisc style wheel covers.

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Someone just bumped the iKon front lip thread and in it they say the iKon adds drag. But man, the price is right...

Does anyone know of a reasonably priced lip that reduces drag other than the Unplugged one?

I don't think I want to live with a lowered car. Maybe the 0.7" drop would be ok...but not sure how much drag is reduced at that ride height.
 
Are you sure rounding the nose will get better Cd? I think the Model S Cd improved going from 2.4 to 2.08 by using more square nose vs round. I believe the goal was to channel air to the sides of the car vs over under.
I'm really curious about the origin and purpose of the weird flat middle part of the nose. Do you have a reference for that? Is that what it's for, to direct air around, rather than over/under the car?

It's super-ugly and I believe it leads to a special "feature" of Teslas: We get the most epic bug-splats of any car on the road. I mean, the Y/3 nose is just soooo nasty after a long road trip. I have pearl white, so you can double how horrible that looks. And it's hard to get off, even though I have PPF. You have to scrub and scrub. Hey, I think I finally like my MYLR, but OMG, Elan, please, you really need to have a pressure washer station at superchargers in between cities for bug-splat (dead bugs on bumper, bug splatter) removal.

-TPC
 
At the very least, you will want some ability to monitor battery, coolant, and motor temps! The Abstract Ocean kits have you plug a bluetooth adaptor into the bus under the console to work the buttons, but the app itself provides such information.

Good luck, @Phido ! I, too, have been experimenting with aerodynamic efficiency, but in the opposite direction :p .


View attachment 924804

I love this! The sticker is epic :0).
 
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