16 JULY/AUGUST _ 201 POPULARMECHANICS.COM
crease in the body-
work? Could we just
give those designers
the lared fenders and
not sweat it? In other
words, would aero cease
to be such a big deal? Cody,
unsurprisingly, seemed aghast
that I would suggest such a thing. “Even
if you had a battery like that, good aero gives
you other options. You could have a smaller
battery, make the car cheaper, give it more
passenger space, make it quieter. Aero will
always be important.”runway in Florida, and it was spooky, wan-
dering and floating across the tarmac. I
didn’t go that fast in the Performante, but
as fast as I did go, it was glued to the road,
with none of the Gallardo’s aerodynamic
imbalance. Lamborghini has always pri-
oritized top speed over handling, but active
aero allows both. The Performante set a
lap record at the Nürburgring, a measure
of high-speed stability. But it also goes
202 mph.
Suzy Cody, GM’s head of vehicle per-
formance for aerodynamics, says this
technology is the bridge between design and
engineering. “Look,”
she says, “it doesn’t
matter how great
your aerodynamics
are if only ten peo-
ple buy the car. Design
matters. And active aero
helps enable design.” But what
if, I posit, there’s a propulsion break-
through? Right now, aerodynamics are
tied to miles per gallon and electric range.
What if we had batteries that were good for
600 miles of range and charged in ten min-
utes? Could we stop worrying about everyB / When the throttle inside the rear
wing is closed (left), air lows along
the rear spoiler, which is shaped like
an upside-down airplane wing. This
path creates downforce over the
inside wheel, for more grip.AB CHOW ACTIVE
AER
ODYNAMICS WORKS
A / When the front spoiler’s door is
closed (far left), the inverted wing
creates maximum downforce. Opening
the door (near left) shrinks the wing,
reducing drag.SEMI-
INTERESTING
AERODYNAMICS
FACTOID NO.
In 1999, before helmet rules, a
cycling team ran wind-tunnel tests
to igure out the most aerody-
namic haircut. First place: the
mullet—10 seconds faster than
bald. The experiment
cost $100,000.C / When the rear
wing’s throttle
is open, air from
inside the stan-
chion interrupts
the wing’s down-
force, reducing
drag.The Lamborghini Huracán
Performante’s unique tech-
nology: the ability to ad-
just its downforce not just
between the front and back,
but from side to side. Here’s
how the next evolutionary
stage of aerodynamics
handles a corner.ABC