Even Mercedes loves Fish

[hungryhound]

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Mercedes' fish-inspired car
POSTED: 12:26 p.m. EDT, March 15, 2007
By Matthew Phenix
Popular Science
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(PopSci.comexternal link) -- When Mercedes-Benz began to contemplate its next generation of high-efficiency small cars, it sought aquatic inspiration.

But instead of considering obvious undersea hot rods like sharks, the Mercedes team turned to a fish that resembled a car: the tropical boxfish.

A native of the Indo-Pacific region, the Ostracion cubicus is surprisingly slick.

Wind-tunnel testing of a clay model revealed a drag coefficient (Cd) of just 0.06, startlingly close to the ideal 0.04 of a water droplet.

Like the droplet, the boxfish's face is small in proportion to its overall length, and its streamlined surfaces encourage air to move over it without creating the turbulence that robs aerodynamic efficiency.

Mercedes' Bionic concept vehicle mimics this functional form.

With a Cd of just 0.19, the four-seat Bionic is significantly more slippery than today's most aerodynamic production vehicle, Honda's two-seat Insight (Cd 0.25).

The design team eschewed expensive, complicated and heavy fuel-cell or hybrid powertrains, opting instead for a 1.9-liter four-cylinder direct-injection turbodiesel that pushes the fishmobile to 62 mph in 8.2 seconds with a combined city/highway fuel economy of 70 mpg.

At a constant 56 mph, the concept car will return an amazing 84 mpg.

Although the Bionic isn't coming to your local dealership, Mercedes does expect it to significantly influence the design language of its next generation of small cars.

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Isn't it amazing what you can come up with, when you just sit and look at a fish tank.

[Chrona]

Yes, you can come up with (some millions of dollars later), one heck of an ugly looking car ;)

I think the only car that's worse is the Aztek....lol

[hungryhound]

I never said it was beautiful. Just that they tried.

[Chrona]

I agree that it's cool that they try to borrow from nature. However, it just bugs me when car companies make cars that look like that :)

[hungryhound]

I agree that it's cool that they try to borrow from nature. However, it just bugs me when car companies make cars that look like that :)

Cheer up. A car like that will never make it past the focus groups.

[hungryhound]

No wonder the car came out looking like that. Take a look at the fish it was modeled after.

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and comapre that to the car
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It is a striking resemblence, but it is just too bad that they chose this particular fish, as I can think of about every fish, in my local fish store, that would look ten times better as a car.

[Drumachine09]

Yes, you can come up with (some millions of dollars later), one heck of an ugly looking car ;)

I think the only car that's worse is the Aztek....lol


Yea, no joke! Ive seen azteks with the "oh-so-witty" bumper sticker that says "Kiss My Aztek"

And what about thos Scion XB's I think they should be called the Scion BOX's.

I like the honda element though. It was designed for surgers and beach bums. If you cover up JUST the speakers in it, you can actually hose out the inside.

[DemonShark]

All those Japanese cars look like them. Too me they are horrible looking