A lot of people drive with their tailgate down. From Mythbusters:
Aerodynamic studies show a pickup truck is most fuel efficient with its tailgate up. It seems the upright tailgate causes air flowing over the roof of the cab to collect as a stagnant "dome" in the cargo bed. As speed builds, this dome, which tapers in a teardrop shape near the tailgate, acts as an aerodynamic ramp that forces airflow over the tailgate, to the benefit of fuel efficiency.
Disrupt this flow by dropping or removing the tailgate, and air coming over the cab is left to swirl around in the cargo bed, degrading the truck's aerodynamics and hurting fuel economy.
Jim Ezell
NEWS FLASH:
We now have had our first TICC qualifier from South Dakota! Daryl Kunzi (a CASI member), cooking in NE and WY has qualified to cook at TICC this year.
From Bud Barrick:
Lots of discussion about Pod membership requirements these days. The New Mexico Chili Society is a very small pod. If it weren't for our friends in Texas we probably would not exist and if we did, we would struggle to attract a sufficient of cooks to conduct sanctioned CCOs.
The New Mexico Chili Society has completed our credentials for this year's GP meeting and on behalf of our Great Pepper I am proud to report that we have 32 paid members. All but two of these members live within 100 miles of our primary area of operation.
Speaking about Annual Reports: At the present time I have received 25 Annual Reports. Thanks to all of you who have sent them to me before the August 15th deadline.
