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Freeman [soylentnews.org] writes:

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/10/1960s-style-aero-testing-with-an-old-school-mustang-restomod/ [arstechnica.com]

To Shelby Mustang fans, the Original Venice Crew (OVC) is the stuff of legends. This was the actual team that designed and built the original GT350s, Cobras, Daytona Coupes, and GT40s that introduced Carroll Shelby's name to the masses. Today, OVC builds modern Mustang recreations so accurate that one was approved for last year's Le Mans Classic, which celebrated 100 years of the world's most famous endurance race.

But OVC also offers updated versions of those classics, bringing to life ideas that bounced around the shop back in the day but that Shelby never built in series production. Want a 1965 GT350 with independent rear suspension? OVC can do that, after dialing in a design that Ford originally believed would be too expensive as a replacement for the first-gen Mustang's solid rear axle.

These projects don't quite fit under the "restomod" umbrella, instead falling more along the lines of the ideas that OVC founder and boss Jim Marietta remembers from his days back at 1042 Princeton Drive [motortrend.com]. Think fender flares cut by hand rather than being machined or updated fiberglass front fascias to provide additional airflow.
[...]
In the 1960s, aerodynamicists struggled with a big gap between common sense design and today's highly refined computational fluid dynamics modeling. LaViolette arrived at Willow Springs fresh off working on the aero packages for some of Shelby American's forthcoming 2024 and ‘25 Mustangs and told me he looked forward to seeing how the classic methods worked in comparison.

"Back in the day, it was one of those things where everybody looked at it and went, ‘Why would you do that? The air comes in from the front!'" he laughed before climbing into the driver's seat. "So what we're here today to do is put wool tufts on the car and we're gonna do it old-school and we're gonna see which way the wool flows, see if it starts sucking into the scoop at the back."
[...]
"It works perfect," he says. "Works just like everybody thought it would… A lot of this is fly by the pants. 'Well, let's try this, try that. OK, how does it seal? You have to move this a little bit, shift it around, do a little bit of different seal rubber.'"

"It's what you call American engineering," he chuckles. "What nobody seems to do anymore these days."

Original Submission