Bruce,
While I was at Mercedes, I worked with a nice guy name Dietrich Kamm,
or Dee for short. His father was Wunibald Kamm, the German
aerodynamicyst. He had a wind tunnel setup in Stuttgart in the late
Thirties and found that the aerodynamics/drag of a perfect teardrop
could virtually be matched by cutting in off in the back a specific
length, and just leaving a flat vertical surface at the cut. This, of
course, was the Kamm Theory and was made famous by the Vega Kammback
wagon. It was certainly more practical for raod-going cars because it
cut down on the length. (Dee tried, unsuccessfully, to get a free one
from GM because they were ostensibly using his dad's theory and his
family name. I think he was better off not getting it, personally.)
MB used the basic theory in the shape of the 190 "Baby Benz" in the
early Eighties. What most people don't know is that all the facet lines
of the body and fenders, if extended, met in a single point 20-odd feet
behind the squared-off rear of the car. The first big snow we had after
the car came out showed the effectiveness, as snow filled in the area
over the rear deck to form a perfect "bread van" shape, like the famous
Ferrari LeMans car.
The 190, had a top speed of over 125 mph with a 123-hp engine and four
people onboard. I drove an experimental 230-hp turbo version that
topped out at 170 despite having really fat tires "for traction
security" (the rears stuck out beyond the fender wells).
Arnie
( Several notes about Arnie : He is an early day hot rodder from Massachusetts
who worked at Peterson Publishing for a number of years, in addition to an
important position with Mercedes Benz / North America, and he is the author
of
the Absolute GREATEST Book on Fifties New England Hot Rodding and Drag Racing
:"Cool Cars; Square Roll Bars". Arnie is at all the big Northeast Nostalgia
Rodding Meets and Drag Reunions and wintertime Slide Shows selling his
terrific book, and often comes from his home in New Jersey in his superneat
Flatty powered '27T roadster with a racecar nose on it. It is no
understatement
to say he is a virtual history book of early hotrodding / drag racing and also
is extremely well versed about European Formula 1 Racing, going way back,
and the whole deal on the Three Pointed Star Wondercars of MercedesBenz .....
and he also has one of the Greatest Off Beat Senses of Humor I have ever
come across !!!
If you want to buy his great book on TRUE earlydays Hot Rods ........
email him at his email address up above ........ )
Bruce
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