They designed it after the boxfish, according to THIS article, which says:
The example arrived at was the boxfish.
Despite its boxy, cube-shaped body, this tropical fish is in fact outstandingly streamlined and therefore represents an aerodynamic ideal. With an accurately constructed model of the boxfish the engineers in Stuttgart were able to achieve a wind drag coefficient of just 0.06 in the wind tunnel.
In order to use this great potential for automobile development purposes, specialists at DaimlerChrysler first created a 1:4 car model whose shape was substantially based on the boxfish. During tests in the wind tunnel, a drag coefficient of 0.095 a previously unprecedented value in automotive engineering was measured for this clay model. It corresponds to the values achieved with highly streamlined shapes (Cd 0.09) and other aerodynamically ideal forms.
The example arrived at was the boxfish.
Despite its boxy, cube-shaped body, this tropical fish is in fact outstandingly streamlined and therefore represents an aerodynamic ideal. With an accurately constructed model of the boxfish the engineers in Stuttgart were able to achieve a wind drag coefficient of just 0.06 in the wind tunnel.
In order to use this great potential for automobile development purposes, specialists at DaimlerChrysler first created a 1:4 car model whose shape was substantially based on the boxfish. During tests in the wind tunnel, a drag coefficient of 0.095 a previously unprecedented value in automotive engineering was measured for this clay model. It corresponds to the values achieved with highly streamlined shapes (Cd 0.09) and other aerodynamically ideal forms.
