Aerodynamics-- request for project help

[hetiticth]

Recently I have been looking into some of the German cars of the mid to late 1930s that were focused on attaining as low a drag coefficient as possible, in hopes of finding one that I could recreate.

So far, this has been the best candidate: The 1939 Maybach Stromlinienkarosserie.

This car appears to be a very good platform for a high performance vehicle, though there are a few issues that I have encountered. While some of these issues I could probably work around, most have become an issue.

The first is a lack of information on the car. I have found a few different sources saying that it was designed to test tires on the autobahn, and it was capable of getting up to 150mph on a 150bhp engine. I have only found one sort of blueprint for the car, which is below:



A few other pictures of the car:



This is about all I have on the car. There are a few more photos, but nothing that really helps with recreating it..

Another issue that I have encountered would be cooling. Ideally, this would be a water cooled engine (probably a small block chevy.. parts are easy to come by). Unfortunately, I have been having issues with devising an efficient cooling method without having to custom-make a radiator. The reason this is an issue is that I would like to keep the drag as little as possible.

I have yet to decide where I would place the engine, though I do know that I will be wanting to use a dry sump system for the ease of maintenance (it will have sheet metal on the bottom of the car), though that can be set up later.

Would a front engine, RWD setup be ideal for something like this? If I were to race it, I would likely be doing drags, though I do want it to have a decent top speed.

And finally, for the aerodynamics experts out there, I have a few questions:
What would be the best way to get minimum drag?
Should I make the angle on the back of the cabin less sharp so air sticks to it better?
Anyone have a decent idea of how to find out the drag coefficient of my car without taking it to a wind tunnel?
Would I benefit much from lowering the car?
Should the front end be pointier or keep the generic teardrop shape?



Many thanks!!
~hetiticth

P.S. I am also looking into how to cool radial engines as well. I am thinking of trying to make one that runs well in an automobile, and I also want it to be water cooled. It will be a vertical setup though, which is unusual for radial setups (the crank is vertical). Any ideas would be welcome!!