The shape is giving you more head speed, more forgiveness, and higher launch. So what does all of this shaping and aerodynamic stuff get you? Tomo Bystedt says the result is TaylorMade’s lowest CGs, with the same or better MOI, and more efficient aerodynamics. It gives each of the drivers’ soles an asymmetrical appearance, but as long as you’re getting more speed, who cares? Rotating a sole feature sounds simple enough (remember, simple can be a good thing), but TaylorMade says it has patents to ensure it will be the only company to implement this particular solution.
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With SIM’s Rotated Inertia Generator (it’s visibly tilted from heel to toe), airflow over the heel isn’t disrupted. Player testing showed that the new rotated design is more aerodynamically efficient.
“If you’re seeing it in the computer, and you’re seeing it in the wind tunnel, and you’re not seeing it in player testing, then the aero improvements you’re making aren’t working,” says TaylorMade’s Tomo Bystedt. To fix it, TaylorMade engineers used computer simulations and wind tunnel testing of the clubhead in various orientations to test alternative designs before ultimately validating the revised design in player testing. The solution, it seems, was causing a new problem. Airflow disruption is a more genteel way of saying turbulent wake or drag, but ultimately, what we’re talking about is the loss of potential clubhead speed. TaylorMade’s testing showed that in the final portions of the downswing when the face is still open and beginning to move towards square (hopefully), airflow was being disrupted over the heel portion of the inertia generator.
Unfortunately, TaylorMade says it’s not all rainbows and puppies (my words). These days, what TaylorMade and Cobra are doing is likely at the leading edge of a trend. The result is what not so long ago would have been considered an unconventional shape for a driver head. So how did TaylorMade lower the CG, increase forgiveness, and improve aerodynamics? Much like it did with M6, it raised the crown and increased the height of the skirt (the part of head between the crown and the sole that nobody talked about before last year), and it put a big chunk of mass it calls an inertia generator on the bottom to help drive mass low and back. Back CG is more forgiving, but typically results in higher centers of gravity, which gets you more spin, and the shaping required to put weight back often brings with it an aerodynamic penalty. That’s great for lowering spin and boosting ball speed, but it doesn’t get you much in the way of forgiveness (it’s low MOI). With the driver, low CG has typically meant forward CG. We’ve talked about engineering trade-offs before.