http://cartalk.cars.com/Columns/Arch...ctober/05.html

This is kinda interesting...

 

a tonneau cover, however, will produce the same effect as the separated bubble the engineer was talking about. So, for fuel mileage optimization, one would want to either purchase a tonneau or leave the tail gate up.

 

Veddy interesting. Answered a long-standing question of mine. Thanks for posting.

 

will the reduced weight of the truck with the t/g removed result in quicker 1/4 mile ets? Seems that most(all?) tuners remove them when racin'................

Dan

 

less weight = lower et's

 

I have read that before and was reluctant to believe it, I had to try it myself. Back to back runs at the track proved it was true. There was a tenth of a second difference between running with the gate up and running with the gate in the open/down position, slower with it down. I tried it a couple times back and forth and netted the same results.

Mike