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Ruby Red C-MAX Hybrid Photos


robertlane
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I bought a ruby red 2013 escape. It's been involved in four recalls. Heck, I haven't seen the car since Thanksgiving. Did a buy bavk with Ford. I really wanted candy blue cmax, but the only car available was the ruby red. So back into red I go.

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  • 1 year later...

3 months ago I bought a 2014 CMax Energi which I named Sparky. Here's the pic

img_0696.jpg?w=700&h=450

 

The hood bug deflector is from Ford Accessories website.

The chrome corner guard on lower fenders is available at any Pep Boys

Chrome window pillars are from Juiced Hybrids dot com

Door Ding guard and the Shark Fin Antenna are also from Juiced Hypbrids, they guarantee to color match.

I added the chrome stripe to the door ding guard with chrome tape I got at Pep Boys.

Mudflaps also from Juiced Hybrids

The Chrome Door Handles are from Ebay. They are for the 2013 model and  NOT compatable with the 2014 CMax model,

but careful work with a Dremel and you can make them fit the slight difference in 2013/14 body style.

 

Tan interior with custom neoprene seat covers.

The only thing missing is the window deflectors. Inline installed ones are not yet available for the 2014 but should be soon. The only ones available I have found are exterior mounted and as it's a flexible rubber frame around the window I don't want to stick things to that. Inline or In-frame mounted looks better anyway.

Edited by gerry1of1
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Need to show a pix from the rear view and top side so we can see the snark fin antenna so others will want to replace their crappy fishing pole with a modern antenna that this car needs so badly.

 

A little too much chrome on your car for my taste bit glad your are taking it to the next level.

 

While the door ding protectors help I'm sure, they do detract from the clean looking side door panels.

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I haven't taken a pic of the back yet, but it's your standard type Fin Antennae - color matched of course.

I can tell you reception is every bit as good as the  factory antennae .

 

Chrome is a style choice. I found the car to be a bit bland without something to make it pop.

The chrome pillars are great. perhaps I went over the top with the door handles. But I like Sparky as is. :)

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...the snark fin antenna so others will want to replace their crappy fishing pole with a modern antenna that this car needs so badly.

 

Hope to see more CMaxes out there with shark fins instead of fishing poles someday

If you do, it's a clear sign that the stylists and marketeers have won... so we users are losers.

 

It starts with the purpose of the whip antenna, which I'll assume is AM/FM radio. FM is ~100MHz, which is a 3m wavelength. Good FM antennae are on the order of 1/4 wave in size, or 75cm. There are techniques to increase effective length in a shorter physical length, but none of them get you small enough to fit a functional FM antenna in a shark fin. (GPS works in the 1.2-1.6GHz range, so antennae are10-15x smaller size)

 

The other functional issue is drag. I'll address the base and mast separately.

 

Base

The base is low and rounded, so theory says it will disappear in the boundary layer under the laminar flow across the roof. When tuft testing, I made a point of surrounding the antenna with tufts. The two on either side, at the trail edge, show no sign of flow disturbance. Same for the one immeidately downstream of it. There's nothing I see on the roof flow to indicate a disturbance from this antenna. Observation agrees with theory. This base is more than large enough for a GPS antenna

 

Mast

As you know, drag force = Cd x Area, so let's compare areas. I measured the C-Max antenna as having a 2mm shaft that's 17cm long on a 1cm base that's about 8cm long, for an area of 11.4 sq cm. For comparision, I measured several shark fins... Hyundai was 2.5cm wide and 5cm tall (above a 2.5cm base that I assume is also in the boundary layer), for a 12.5 sq cm area. The antenna on the Audi next to it is only 1 cm x 2.5cm = 2.5 sq cm.  For reference, the car is about 23,000 sq cm in cross-sectional area. The antenna is 1 part in 2000, and 0.05% isn't measurable by our methods.

 

And finally, reception. I removed my antenna for measurement. I listen to a BOCES station (Board of Cooperative Educational Services, aka "tech school". DJ's are high schoolers... keeps me young) so it's fairly weak. Barely comes in from ~15 miles away without the antenna, and from ~45 miles away with it. My Volvo had a full-size dipole antenna build into the rear side window (station wagon), and it did a little better, but not much.

 

BTW, the PriI I measured were more like 16-18" (40-50cm) whip antennae...

 

So keep pushing shark fins if you must, but at least tell a complete story! It's for looks over function at all levels.

 

HAve fun,

Frank

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Hi Gerry, great name, spelled correctly, too!  I really like your red 'Max, especially the chrome additions.  They do, as you say, make Sparky "pop"!  Are you planning to replace the wheels with some with more chrome to them?  It seems the 'Max could use better looking chrome wheels.  Anyway, great looking car!

 

Gerry - AKA Ger, the Southern California Connection

Edited by BoomerGer
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