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Morphic Studies

AriLea

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bmw_i9_mag_final.jpg
 

Coss

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Do you what kind of drag difference is between the Elio and the Sondors body style.
Do you what kind of ……. What kind of question is that?

Frontal area of the Sondor is pretty big and bulky, but for the speeds it travels it's no comparison to the Elio.
The Elio is much more "slippery" then the Sondor so there is no comparison.
 

AriLea

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Do you what kind of drag difference is between the Elio and the Sondors body style.
OK, words like comparison are a bit subjective here when not being specific, even more so for slippery. What Coss said is accurate with-in his subjective meaning. But your question was valid and can be answered to some degree with out detailed measurements. But aerodynamic tests would settle all issues the most admirably.

When Coss said slippery above it says that the Sondors has more total aerodynamic drag than the Elio. Which I feel is correct. Sondors is side-by-side seating, with enclosed fenders (part of the body: different from closed wheels) and as he said those both make the frontal much bigger. So that answers your question adequately.

Now on the other hand, you may wonder about those exposed suspension parts and 'closed' wheels for the Elio, vs the fact that the Sondors has open wheel wells and fixed taller fenders but no other junk out in the wind. Generally the Elio benefits a lot from the lower cross-section but gets some trouble out of the suspension hanging out in the wind, compared to the Sondors.

Eio Motors considered the trade-offs at length, and went for lower frontal area using tandem seating and outrigger wheels.

But on the open wheel wells, Sondors as well as Elio has an open section of body at the front wheels at about the same size (Elio has a bit smaller void). On the balance the Elio most likely has less drag due to the front wheel fender design than the Sondors, but the Sondors has a possibly better aero-efficiency bump(CD). The reason is that CD by itself is only a measure useful to compare for a equal cross section. And the two cars are not the same area.

Cd is interesting, but the actual total aero-drag is queen(?drag queen? : oh lordy) ahhh, but please note, the sum total of all drag is King.

Over the whole body, the Sondors might have a better CD rating, provided that the taper to the back doesn't cause turbulent flow on the trailing surfaces. Generally you look for a 12 degree receding angle. More than that and at 60 mph the flow might de-laminate and become turbulent.

The Elio has a larger butt than the Sondors, but the overall cross-section size is out done by the Elio smaller overall cross-section size.

But as I said total drag is King. Part of the total is rolling resistance for weight, and the Sondors has more weight. So Elio wins there too.
 
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AriLea

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I'm not sure where I first found it. Maybe on Pinterest.com. The original image is a sociable 2 seat, and the image only showed the front end. I narrowed and trimmed seats for solo, and added the rear end to finish my morph edit.
It has blisters for headlight assemblies, so the original might be a 4 wheeler. The single nose lamp might make you think otherwise. (that's actually a emblem)
...wait that reverse search by google...... OK I found it! Peugeot contest design, the Mistral. Yup sociable 4 wheeler open roadster.

Like many artworks, this one is out of proportion, side-by-side with out-rigger wheels at that distance, might not fit into a lane as drawn.
Just a little trimming (and extending) as above, and it has good proportions for inline or solo seating that would fit on the road.
z_p_mistral2_450.jpg
 
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