[DeTomaso] Techno question: blocking air flow over the rear deck

[JDeRyke at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/9/12 11:34:39 AM, rob at dumoulins.net writes:

> Would it be that difficult to seal the pan area around the back hatch?
> 
No, but then the Law of Unintended Consequenses intrudes. The air naturally 
flowing from below the car up and out the deck opening past the engine, 
headers etc does carry away some heat. That cooling effect would be lost as air 
would then continue below the engine out under the rear bumper. Stock 
airflow thru the A/C core would be affected- not sure how much- and aerodynamic 
rear lift would probably be affected. Stock, the Pantera is pretty well 
balanced at speeds up to maybe 120 mph and adding a front air dam extends the 
'tolerable' speed to maybe 170. We have a pretty good idea the rear of the 
non-winged Pantera tends to lift noticably by speeds over 170. Putting a solid 
'screen'   in place would still leave the huge notch produced by the 
horizontal rear deck to affect rear drag; the area is partially 'filled in' with the 
under-car airflow in stock config. There have been a couple of smoothed-in 
rear decks made that blocked airflow from below, but dunno their effect on 
high speed handling, cooling etc. 

Someone would have to actually test this, and judging from what happened 8 
yrs ago when I tried to organize a test in Aerodyne's then-new A-3 Wind 
Tunnel in N. Carolina, it won't happen. To refresh, I got pledges of money and 
lots of enthusiasm for someone else   to do all the work on their own Pantera 
and report the results to the world, but no actual volunteers. Since I'm 
3000 miles away and on a fixed income, I'm about as far away as a U.S Pantera 
owner can be, and poor. The idea died. Good luck, Rob- J Deryke