aerodynamics

MPG boosting tail cone

MPG boosting tail cone

Darin is doing some amazing work to upgrade and test the aerodynamic improvements to his Pontiac Firefly, which was sold in the US as the Geo Metro. These cars were often sneered at for rolling off the assembly line with a tiny 3 cylinder engine. They didn’t sport much power, but they also went an incredibly long distance on a gallon of gas. Excellent data and documentation of the mods is available at MetroMPG, and on EcoModder.

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Foam model in your wind tunnel

Foam model in your wind tunnel

Design it, build it, test it, fly it In your classroom, students may be working with concepts like aerodynamics and the Design Process. Many kids use the CO2 dragster as a way of exploring these ideas. In MAKE: Volume 15 and MAKE: Volume 16, we have a couple of projects that can really help students […]

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Rocket cars

Rocket cars

Designing CO2 cars is a project for many middle school technology and science classes. The projects gives an opportunity for students to get hands on experience with the Design Process, working with tools and materials, and design and build for aerodynamics and manufacture a vehicle that can go very fast if even for a short […]

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