In the development of the upcoming 2014 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28, the designers scrutinized every component of the car in order to enhance its track performance. And can you believe that even the iconic Chevrolet bowtie faced audit.
During aerodynamics testing, Chevrolet engineers noticed that the bowtie on the Z/28’s grill was displacing air away from the radiator. This in turn can make an impact on the engine’s cooling. They solved the problem by cutting-off the wheel to the gold fill of the bowtie, leaving the silver outline intact; then – installed the prototype on the grill and retested to see the results.
The so called “Flowtie”, is just the chrome outline of the traditional bowtie, with the center removed. As simple as it might look, this solution was enough to allow three additional cubic meters of air into the engine per minute.
In addition, the Flowtie dropped the temperatures of engine coolant and engine oil by 2°F (1.2°C) during extended track sessions. These improvements were enough to justify making the Flowtie standard on every new Z/28.
2014 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 will arrive in dealerships this Spring.
Source: Chevrolet