Patent ID: 7828368

Claim:
A vehicle underbody fairing apparatus for reducing aerodynamic drag caused by a vehicle wheel assembly supporting a vehicle body from thereunder, comprising: a fairing body having a fairing front end, a fairing rear end, and a tapered aerodynamic surface comprising a bottom section flanked by left and right side sections which together extend from the fairing front end to the fairing rear end with a substantially U-shaped cross-section that tapers in both height and width; and means for mountably securing the fairing body to an underside surface of the vehicle body, so that the fairing front end is adjacent to and downstream of the vehicle wheel assembly and the bottom section of the tapered aerodynamic surface rises towards the underside surface of the vehicle body as the tapered aerodynamic surface extends downstream from the fairing front end to the fairing rear end, whereby the mounted fairing body reduces the size of a recirculation zone formed under the vehicle body immediately downstream of the vehicle wheel assembly.