The "Miller Wedge" is a pioneering
streamliner
A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor " bullet trains". Less commonly, the term ...
dragster.
Designed by dragster and
funny car
Funny Car is a type of drag racing vehicle and a specific racing class in organized drag racing. Funny cars are characterized by having tilt-up fiberglass or carbon fiber automotive bodies over a custom-fabricated chassis, giving them an appe ...
builder
Sammy Miller in 1974, the car was allegedly a product of Miller's dislike of repeated funny car fires. It featured bicycle front wheels, a low-mounted, front-sloping rear wing, and a mid-mounted engine (placed further ahead of the rear axle than most similar dragsters). The body was a pronounced wedge shape, and covered the front of the
slicks (unlike ''
Wynns Stormer
''Wynns Stormer'' is a streamliner dragster.
Built in 1972 by Woody Gilmore (who also produced Don Prudhomme's wedge digger), on a Woody chassis, the car had bicycle front wheels and dropped front axle, a very pointed nose, and an engine cover ...
'', which had a more conventional body and broad wedge fairings over the engine and exhaust, ahead of the rear tires). The exhaust pipes were also enclosed.
In theory, the wedge body offered an aerodynamic advantage, decreasing turbulent airflow over the rear wheels, as well as increasing
downforce
Downforce is a downwards lift force created by the aerodynamic features of a vehicle. If the vehicle is a car, the purpose of downforce is to allow the car to travel faster by increasing the vertical force on the tires, thus creating more grip ...
; in practise, the extra weight exceeded any advantage.
Miller ran the car for the 1974 season, but had "mixed results";
[Taylor, p.38.] the car had no obvious edge over more conventional rear-engined dragsters.
Notes
Sources
*Taylor, Thom. "Beauty Beyond the Twilight Zone" in ''Hot Rod'', April 2017, pp.30-43.
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1970s cars
Drag racing cars