MAX Update No. 29: Cardboard-aided Design

Reader Contribution by Staff
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Don’t pay the ransom, I escaped! Wow, it’s been a busy month for me, and I apologize for the lack of updates recently.

The last weekend in May was MAX’s farewell public showing in its Escape from Berkeley trim, at a fun, wonderful event called the Maker Faire.

We were there to show the flag and drum up business for Escape from Berkeley II. I figured if the Escape folks were willing to give us five grand for winning the event last year, the least we could do is encourage others to join in the fun this year. So we pulled off the streamlined body bits and put back the stylish-but-slow fenders and lights and all, and drove down to San Mateo, Calif., for one last hurrah.

Now we’re back, and we have to knuckle down on the streamlining. In order to reach 100 mpg, we’ll have to get MAX down to the drag coefficient of a typical modern sports car.

The drag coefficient (aka “coefficient of drag”, abbreviated Cd) is a comparison of the drag of an object versus a flat plate of the same frontal area. A Mazda Miata, for example, has a Cd of 0.38.

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