Lawn covered cars

[leon]

Hi Guys


Saw this artical about a lawn covered car on 9 MSM

However the van pictured below is what we captured whilst in the NT, it belonged to a backpacker couple Parked out at East Point Rd along the foreshore



Wheels has stumbled across these shots of what is possibly the world’s greenest car. But far from an exotic, fuel-sipping hybrid or hydrogen-electric ZEV, this is a 1998 Mitsubishi Magna, totally wrapped in synthetic grass.
For sale on eBay late last year, the Queensland registered sedan allegedly drew enthusiastic bidding, with the sale price soaring towards $1000.
Saving the planet, one old banger at a time…


Leon

[eddiedunlop (Martin)]

You'd have to be a little bit bent to drive a car like that.

[AndrewJ]

Great if you have a dog

Andrew

[Ric]

Something you don't see everyday.

[Steffen]

The lawn should reduce the drag quite a bit at higher speeds (until it starts flying off ).

Cheers
Steffen.

[inline_online (Dan)]

Sort of related to this post:

My sister in Law and her boyfriend at the time came into a lot of money and got a whole stack of cool stuff including a brand new Porsche 911. Money meant so little to the pair of fools that when I visited them, the 911 was sitting unused in the driveway and it was covered in mould. I forget the original colour but its new colour was green. I made them aware of my displeasure but they laughed it off.

[LewisM]

Originally Posted by Steffen

The lawn should reduce the drag quite a bit at higher speeds (until it starts flying off ).

Cheers
Steffen.

Nope,quite the opposite - lots of parasitic and form drag from such a surface. The drag would increase.

Also, eddies/vortices would propagate around the blades of grass, causing more drag and disruption to laminar flow.

I fail to see how covering your car in astrotruk does anything but:
1. makes you look like a tool
2. increases drag, hence increasing fuel usage (as well as weight increase, which increases fuel consumption)

Now, we don't see aeroplanes or high speed vehicles covered in this stuff, do we Wonder why. Probably a bit like the scams back in the 90's where guys would mix graphite with matt black paint to become a stealth car

[WilliamStark (William)]

I can't say I like the look, but it's preferable to a bunch of rusty paint.

[Steffen]

Originally Posted by LewisM

Nope,quite the opposite - lots of parasitic and form drag from such a surface. The drag would increase.

Also, eddies/vortices would propagate around the blades of grass, causing more drag and disruption to laminar flow.

No, a laminate flow has a higher drag. If you can disturb the flow near the surface into micro-turbulence the drag will be greatly diminished. With laminar flow the flow speed is zero at the surface and increases proportionally to the square of the distance from it. Micro-turbulence gives you full flow speed in immediate vicinity of the surface.

That's how drag is reduced in golf balls, and – as has been experimentally proven – in golf ball dimpled cars.

Cheers
Steffen.

[LewisM]

Airflow energisation... yes, OK.

But, surely it would depend on the height of the grass - you'd have to keep it mown.

I thought the underlaying principle to golfball dimpling was to create regions of low pressure.

Might go hit the crappy Laser GL with a ball peen hammer all over to resemble a golf ball

[Steffen]

Yes, everything probably depends on the size of the obstacles and the air speed. I guess you'd have to keep that grass fairly short, if it works at all…

Cheers
Steffen.

[AstralTraveller (David)]

Back in '89 there was a caravan in Wyndham caravan park that had been covered in brick veneer. Looked hideous. I think it would make a perfect match for a grass-covered car!