In the beginning of 2023, the great folks on the Division of Experimental Psychology at College School London surveyed 200 males between the ages of 18 and 74, and supposedly found scientifically what all of us knew already: Males driving quick vehicles possible have small dicks.
Put extra exactly, the authors said that there was “an informal psychological hyperlink between quick vehicles and small penises.” The pondering, in line with their paper, is that males who imagine they’re one way or the other missing within the trouser division usually tend to rush out and purchase, say, a Porsche 911 or a Ferrari.
It will get worse for older gents. The experiment, which has not but undergone peer evaluate, discovered that “males over 30 particularly rated sports activities vehicles as extra fascinating once they have been made to really feel that that they had a small penis.”
One suspects the lecturers may hear the cries of “Quelle suprise!” even earlier than they completed their examine.
Automotive design is, sadly, nonetheless nearly solely a male area. However now, fortunately, the character of EVs and the necessity for range-extending slippy aerodynamics has at the very least began to shift new automobile kinds away from todger-compensating tropes similar to energy bulges, aggressive haunches, and ridiculous spoilers, as a substitute bringing in subtler, aero-friendly traces. Admittedly, poor examples following this new path have greater than a whiff of “Jell-O-mold” about them (we’re taking a look at you Mercedes EQS), however when achieved proper you get one thing just like the Ioniq 6.
Not a Jelly Bean in Sight
When Hyundai revealed the Ioniq 6 in 2022, SangYup Lee, govt vp and head of the Hyundai International Design Heart, referred to the automobile’s sweeping silhouette as “streamliner typology,” citing the penchant for aerodynamic automotive design within the Thirties and ’40s.
The 6’s environment friendly, single-curve profile affords it a drag coefficient of simply 0.21, a mere smidge behind the 0.20 claimed by the aforementioned EQS, presently the world’s most aerodynamic automobile. However that is the purpose: I might swap that paltry 0.01 benefit of the boring Mercedes for the way more thought-about design of the Ioniq 6 any day. Right here Hyundai proves sensible, aero-centric design might be engaging, from any angle. Others appear to agree. On the 2023 World Automotive Awards, the 6 drove off with design of the 12 months, EV of the 12 months, and total automobile of the 12 months.
Regardless of this mighty spectacular lack of drag, which helps supposedly propel the Ioniq 6 as much as 361 miles on a single cost within the long-range model, Simon Loasby, vp and head of Hyundai Type Group, needed extra. “We have been desperately looking for options to get right down to the very best drag we may within the early days. I had a T-shirt made that stated ‘0.1x,’ as a result of I needed to get underneath 0.2 as a objective. We did not obtain it, after all. But when getting 0.21 is failure, then I am proud of that failure,” he says.
“One of many methods we got here up with was a quite simple answer,” says Loasby. “Figuring out we now have a brief entrance overhang, it is laborious to connect the airflow onto the perimeters of the automobile. So we stuffed up the hole in entrance of the entrance wheel by 25 millimeters, bridging it, so much less turbulence happens round that entrance wheel. That gave us the final counts we wanted to get right down to 0.21. By no means seen it on any automobile earlier than, by no means truly tried it earlier than.”
One other instance of design fostering incremental aero good points comes from Hyundai’s head of aerodynamics, who, on analyzing the true spoiler, realized they need to ditch a straight form and as a substitute mannequin the 6’s on the Supermarine Spitfire wing, however enhance on it by including downturned winglets on the ends. “Closing the hole between this spoiler and the physique floor stops a vortex increase. The vortex places vitality into the wind, and this implies misplaced vitality from the automobile,” says Loasby. “We might find it irresistible to be rise and fall spoiler, however that is extra weight and extra value.”