A pillar trim before the aero cars

[Ghoste]

I was looking at some shots of Petty in 66 and I notice the car has some kind of a trim panel on the A pillars.  I know some of the Fords from around the same era had a chrome windshield surround that was there from the factory but as far as I know the Plymouth offered no such trim.  Would it be on there because Petty ws already aware of aerodynamic benefits or do you think it was added because someone thought it looked cool?

[Aero426]

Can you post or link to the sample pics?

[Ghoste]

It's supposed to be from the Darlington race in 66.

[Aero426]

I took a look in some books and I see a couple cars in the 64-66 era have A-pillars that either have some extra trim, or are bondoed up, or taped up.    I saw a Pearson #6 '64 Dodge that you could not see the drip rail or chrome trim on the windshield.    They may have cheated this area up until they were told to stop. 

[Redbird]

I believe you do see bondoed A pillars as Doug said. Also, convertibles often had chrome A pillars so that could have been a source for material.

I have thought a lot about aerodynamics since Hot Rod Magazine came out with their articles on it in reference to stock bodied cars a few years ago. I know how aerodynamic a '82 Firebird with the aero package is. The car can be made very low and is small. The Hot Rod article said waxing the body was of no use for higher speed, they said a wives tale. It also curiously talked about windshields, saying that after a rake of 45 degrees in windshield slope, more slope there was not important. I understand the smoothness idea for an A pillar, I'd be curious how Hot Rod rated the importance. Air management seems important. I also think the knowledge individuals can have about wind tunnels is so much more than 40 years ago.

When I think about wind tunnel studies of cars, there was 2 guys that worked at the GM wind tunnel, Stageberg and Eckman (I'm sure I got the spelling wrong here) who really knew how to trick up an '82 Firebird. They were at the forefront of stock bodied car study.

Look at the Bonneville streamliners these days. Protreet and Main going 400+MPH, almost at will, with their car which is unbelievably smooth and studied. Going back to the Goldenrod which was smooth for it's time, but now looks just huge and pushed a huge hole in air. I remember when Al Teague went 308 MPH with his lakester (open front wheels) at Bonneville, the simple change to making it a streamliner (enclosing the front wheels) almost immediately brought him up to 354 MPH. 

Then you have a golf ball with dimples.

[learical1]

Then you have a golf ball with dimples.

As in the Mythbusters' Taurus?