Top Menu

Saabism logo
HOME  |  RIDES   |   PRACTICAL   |   SAABS   |   DRAMA   |   MUSIC   |   APPS   |   OTHER   |   WORLD MAP

Monday, June 6, 2011

Mythbusters : driving a convertible in rain without the roof

In an older part of Mythbusters, they want to confirm or disconfirm the myth, that if you drive a convertible in a rain, the interior stays dry. Basically it's about when it starts to rain unexpected, if you have to stop immediately or drive to a first dry place, for ex. gas station and close the top there.

Because in this part Mythbusters are busting also 2 another myths, I've tried to link the relevant parts as good as possible. And because Mythbusters are declining video embed, I am linking it via text.

 ......................................................................................................................................

Simulation - 00:00 - 03:00, first try on a car model + preparing water indicators for the seats in real car

Driving in rain at different speeds - 00:00 - 03:10, driving at 25 mph (40km/h) and 55 mph (88 km/h)

Faster driving and conclusion - 00:26 - 04:30, driving at 70 mph (112km/h), 90 mph (145 km/h)

......................................................................................................................................

It was to expect, the more speed the less water in the car.

But for a real life, this is not usable at all.

If your're in the city with low speed limits, you will get wet. Prepare to clean the interior completely.

If your're outside of the city with up to 90-100km/h speed limit, you may have a small chance for a roof-up stop. Otherwise you will get wet from the other cars from the street.

Well and who drives with a roof down on a highway. Loud, windy and not too funny. Besides the fact, that to drive 90 mph (145 km/h) through a rain is dangerous.

I've tried once to drive in kind of middle-intensive rain with the soft-top down, 100-110 km/h on back roads. The front and the rear seats stayed dry. Everything behind was wet. That was fine for some 20 minutes, than you ask yourself if you are normal or not.














Maybe interesting on this is, that water apparently behaves different than air. Otherwise it wouldn't be a wind deflector needed. While water comes out of the car at a bigger speed, air comes inside and creates a curl at least in the 4 seats convertibles, simmilar to the blue pickup on the left. The bigger speed, the more stronger curl.

Whatever. You don't need to be a meteorologist or a ship captain to know when a rain could come.

4 comments:

  1. Do you see the Saab 9-3 convertible in the video?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1I3YoFHufA&feature=related

    At 03:21

    ReplyDelete
  2. And in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1I3YoFHufA&feature=related

    this video is 900 sedan in red in 05:07

    ReplyDelete
  3. yes yes. i've spotted the first, but didn't know if 900ng or 9-3, so didn't commented. The second I didn't spotted, thanks for that :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. btw. elkman song is LOL !:D http://elk-man.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete