I know the 09 TL supposedly has improved aerodynamics, but does anybody know the official coefficient of drag (Cd)? I wonder why Acura is not publishing this data, could it be not up to par as the competition?

 

.29 is what I've seen published?

 

Hmmm, I think that's the number for 3G TL, but I guess they can be the same.

 

I I think its .27-.29...

 

Back in the 80's some auto marketing person somewhere thought it'd be great to start a Cd numbers campaign. And so it started with many a manufacturer publishing their Cd.

If I remember correctly Honda made a big deal of the 1G Integra's Cd and the Prelude. Mercedes on the new S class in 1979 make light of it, Pontiac with it's Firebird and so on.

Funny thing was no manufacturer seemed interested in publishing the frontal area of their cars which is equally important to figure the total frontal drag. So these days a few manufacturers publish the Cd still but I've noticed it's just not as important these days in the ads and literature. I vaguely remember Pontiac put these smooth flat dish alloy wheels on the TransAm just to get the Cd as low as possible.

In the end it's kinda silly since the frontal area of the vehicle needs to be known. I'd rather know the vehicles EPA numbers than it's Cd.

FWIW, a modern F1 car with it's thousands of hours if wind tunnel testing has a Cd of ~0.6-0.7
Open wheel cars despite beening slick in body work have tires that create ~70-80% of their total drag.

 

not to mention the impact of the pedestrian safety standards today -