I was seeing an old friend of mine today doing some business and he wanted to drive my new truck..So I let him..he was impressed..A pure chevy guy..

Then we went to his house and he let me drive his 91 Vette...I was impressed..Never drove one before..It was really fun..

Then I was like...we outta run these things..

He was like sure..So he lives off a 5 mile stretch of good black top but a never used road..

He took off ahead from about 20 mph..And I demolished him til I shut it down at about 120mph

Then we went farther up..And I let him get a pretty good head start..After all He is doing business with me.

I caught him but at about 120 we evened out..Dead even..I pulled beside him but neither of us pulled away nor behind..We shut it down after 136 mph..

We were awestruck by the truck..Then I said..DUDE!! I had my tailgate up!! That was probably like a parachute!!! He agreed.. I am getting the tonneau ordered in the next week..

I bet it makes a huge difference at top end with a tonneau or the tailgate down....

It was a blast...But he could not get near me in the 1/4 mile

FUN FUN Side by Side at 136mph..That is my new record for top end!!!!!!!!

 

Don't assume your truck will be faster will the tailgate down. It creates a low pressure pocket behind the cab with the tailgate up. I read somewhere that in an interview with some engineers that they said it's more fuel efficient to leave the tailgate up. may not be true for all speeds or even body styles but something to consider...

 

I'm an ole 5.0L/5 speed guy myself. And the smoothness and power of these things amazes me.
I'm so used to banging the clutch and rippin on my hurst shifter to make good ETs. But this thing just simply pulls away from them smooth as silk.

Last time at the track there was a guy in a new bullit who ran me. He's spinning, banging gears and all, but it was like I was a spectator watching him. Out the side then rear view

WOT

 

Came across this body of text online quite some time ago..........

In the 1970s aircraft production went into a slump, and Lockheed started looking.for other customers for its wind-tunnel services.

Prime candidates were automakers, and Lockheed was successful in convincing Ford, among others, that the wind tunnel wouId help them reduce drag and wind noise on their vehicles.

Needless to say, in the past 15 to 20 years, Lockheed has learned a lot about car and truck aerodynamics.

Anyway, they actually performed drag tests on pickups with the tailgate both up and down, and found that drag was actually LOWER with the tailgate CLOSED!

This ran counter to their intuition (and yours). The reason is that a closed tailgate sets up a large "bubble" of stagnant air that slowly circulates around the bed of the truck (we aero types call this a ("separated bubble"). When air approaches the truck, it "sees" the bubble as part of the truck. So to the air, the truck looks like it has a nice, flat covering over the bed, and the air doesn't "slam" into the vertical tailgate.

If the tailgate is open, or replaced by one of those "air gate" nets, however, that nice, separate bubble in the truck bed does not form (it "bursts").

Then the air approaching the truck "sees" a truck with a flat bed on the back of a tall cab. This is a very nonaerodynamc shape with a very LARGE drag.

So, believe it or not, it's best for gas mileage to keep the tailgate CLOSED. Hope this information is helpful.


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Have a great day eh ! ......... Dave

 

Hey thanks for that info..

But would it be better with a tonnaeu or no diff??


Thanks alot.

Matt