At the beginning of 2023, the nice folks on the Department of Experimental Psychology at University College London surveyed 200 males between the ages of 18 and 74, and supposedly found scientifically what all of us knew already: Men driving quick vehicles possible have small dicks.

Put extra exactly, the authors acknowledged that there was “a casual psychological link between fast cars and small penises.” The pondering, in line with their paper, is that males who imagine they’re one way or the other missing within the trouser division usually tend to rush out and purchase, say, a Porsche 911 or a Ferrari.

It will get worse for older gents. The experiment, which has not but undergone peer evaluate, discovered that “males over 30 in particular rated sports cars as more desirable when they were made to feel that they had a small penis.”

One suspects the lecturers might hear the cries of “Quelle suprise!” even earlier than they completed their examine.

Car design is, sadly, nonetheless virtually solely a male area. But now, fortunately, the character of EVs and the necessity for range-extending slippy aerodynamics has at the least began to shift new automobile kinds away from todger-compensating tropes akin to energy bulges, aggressive haunches, and ridiculous spoilers, as an alternative bringing in subtler, aero-friendly traces. Admittedly, poor examples following this new path have greater than a whiff of “Jell-O-mold” about them (we’re you Mercedes EQS), however when achieved proper you get one thing just like the Ioniq 6.

Not a Jelly Bean in Sight

When Hyundai revealed the Ioniq 6 in 2022, SangYup Lee, government vp and head of the Hyundai Global Design Center, referred to the automobile’s sweeping silhouette as “streamliner typology,” citing the penchant for aerodynamic automotive design within the Thirties and ’40s.

The 6’s environment friendly, single-curve profile affords it a drag coefficient of simply 0.21, a mere smidge behind the 0.20 claimed by the aforementioned EQS, at the moment the world’s most aerodynamic automobile. But that is the purpose: I’d swap that paltry 0.01 benefit of the uninteresting Mercedes for the way more thought of design of the Ioniq 6 any day. Here Hyundai proves sensible, aero-centric design will be engaging, from any angle. Others appear to agree. At the 2023 World Car Awards, the 6 drove off with design of the 12 months, EV of the 12 months, and general automobile of the 12 months.

Despite this mighty spectacular lack of drag, which helps supposedly propel the Ioniq 6 as much as 361 miles on a single cost within the long-range model, Simon Loasby, vp and head of Hyundai Style Group, needed extra. “We had been desperately looking for options to get right down to the most effective drag we might within the early days. I had a T-shirt made that mentioned ‘0.1x,’ as a result of I needed to get below 0.2 as a objective. We did not obtain it, in fact. But if getting 0.21 is failure, then I’m pleased with that failure,” he says.

“One of the tricks we came up with was a very simple solution,” says Loasby. “Knowing we have a short front overhang, it’s hard to attach the airflow onto the sides of the car. So we filled up the gap in front of the front wheel by 25 millimeters, bridging it, so less turbulence occurs around that front wheel. That gave us the last counts we needed to get down to 0.21. Never seen it on any car before, never actually tried it before.”

Another example of design fostering incremental aero gains comes from Hyundai’s head of aerodynamics, who, on analyzing the real spoiler, realized they should ditch a straight shape and instead model the 6’s on the Supermarine Spitfire wing, however enhance on it by including downturned winglets on the ends. “Closing the gap between this spoiler and the body surface stops a vortex building up. The vortex puts energy into the wind, and this means lost energy from the car,” says Loasby. “We would love it to be rise and fall spoiler, but that’s more weight and more cost.”