Gerrelt's Garage

Recently I bolted a kamei front spoiler to my beetle. I was impressed with the results, which got me interested in aerodynamics. Then I stumbled on this article from the excellent website autospeed: Flowing the Porsche 993 twin turbo 4WD and the New Beetle. That article got me thinking.

  On the autospeed.com site there's an article that was one of the reasons for developing my rear window spoiler. It's an article about aerodynamic testing on a Volkswagen New Beetle. They are using short pieces of wool (tufts) taped to the car at certain strategic points. See this article: Autospeed Aero Testing - Part 3.

I've always wanted to do the same to my beetle. So when I finally had some time ( the last day of my holiday.. ) I gathered my family and got to work...

In my quest to reduce windnoise / create better aerodynamics, I wanted the antenna gone. It sits there right in front of the A pillar, creating drag.. Well, it will create very little drag, but it might reduce windnoise. And it looks a lot smoother when it's gone. But I also like listening to the radio in my beetle, so I can't just delete it. There are several compagnies selling windscreen antennas that are glued to the inside of the windscreen, I am going to give one a try.

I've made several trips now with my Alfa Romeo powered 1303 Beetle. Most of these were on the dutch highways on which I drive around 120 km/h.
Now it drives really well on these speeds, but one thing annoys me. The sound of the engine is not the loudest sound anymore, now that I've gone water cooled. The wind noise is very loud! And it felt like the wind noise is mainly coming from around the windshield area.

I was wondering, could things be improved in this area?
I understand I can't change the basic design of my beetle, so it will never be as quiet as a modern car. But would smaller modifications make any difference?