elecblue06

iTrader: (1)

there are some manufacturers that have eco packages which add aerodynamic enhancements

RooTBeeR

iTrader: (4)

in for lulz?

Gestapo007

iTrader: (2)

hello rockchips. How are you? Im fine. Just waiting for you to hit me

I think yall need to quit being chep ass's. If u want a highly fuel efficient car, buy a prius or something

blu3_v1p3r

iTrader: (6)

I can gain 4 mpg by changing the way I drive. Hell I might be able to gain 6 or 7, if there was never any other cars on the highway. My avg mph right now on my DIC is 48, and my avg mpg is 31. I do mostly highway driving with moderate to light traffic. I'll be sure to reset my MPG and avg speed, and tell you what I get on the highway, I'll hold a steady 60mph as much as I can, and I can alomst guarantee I'll be above 35 MPG, and closer to 40.

Now as far as gaining if you could comeup with something that would enhance MPG in city driving that would be impressive.

bri2203

iTrader: (10)

OK
But that doesn't exactly answer the question directly. If adding a rear belly pan gained a minimum of 2 mpg, I think the OEMS would be glad to raise the cost of the car buy $20-40 bucks because there car would get 2 mpg better than the compition which is imporessive.

2007 ion2

not true, for anyone who has driven their ion or cobalt in the truly cold weather, and have an actual temperature gauge (with a readout, not the sweep style gauge), these cars do not stay at operating temperature very well when you are not using the engine for power. every time the engine drops below that range, your engine starts gulping gas. long stoplights are even enough to reduce the blast of heat from your heater to a barely warm breeze. and where does that heat come from? your engine!! the proposed front end mods will quicken warm up times, and thus bring the engine into it's leaner, more efficient fuel and timing trim faster, as well as maintaining it longer at stoplights, and allowing a quicker recovery time after.

yes, there are some people out there who go to some unsafe extremes, but we can also learn and adapt some of these techniques. I rented a new GM u haul truck (10 ft) a week ago with a fuel flow gauge in GPH, I used that, driving to consumption (allowing lean burn as long as possible, ect...), along with not powering up hills, and using downhills to gain speed for the ensuing uphill. I didn't let my speed drop below posted minimum speeds, and maintained 55 as much as I could where consumption was not an issue. I also kept my consumption while accelerating incredibly low, ect... all this added up to 15MPG over about 520 miles, including hilly wisconsin from north to south. couple this with infrequent breaks, and you get an efficient move.

now, the measured difference was about 3MPG between rear under pan and not, along with an increase in aerodynamic drag proven by multiple before and after coast down tests. coasting down from 70 to 40MPH went from 41.03 seconds to 47.25 seconds. three before and after tests in the same spot, the same exact weather conditions proved this to hold up as a big difference in aerodynamic drag. I have yet to play with under car wheel aerodynamics, but will be doing that as soon as I find a material to make the deflectors out of. as far as wheel skirts, I have brackets made up, now I just need to make the skirts and mock them up. these will be held in place by existing hardware on the car, and will be easily removable.


I do not condone tailgating, for any reason, however, getting more MPG out of a car with twice the power of a prius, or more, is soooooo satisfying. the new prius gets 48MPG highway, I have gotten 44 out of my ion driving normally, unmodded. if I can get 48 occasionally, and 40 or more on a regular basis, it will please me to no end when my car plus all the mods cost a lot less than a prius.

OEMs have aerodynamic mods on, among others, the silverado XFE. underpans (including a partial rear one) are part of what make the prius so efficient. people will complete the rear one on the prius (our cars are as aerodynamic underneath as a prius, believe it or not, except for the absent partial rear under pan), and get even better mileage. as to why OEMs don't all focus on such inexpensive mods to get better MPG, I cannot answer, especially because with how aerodynamic the front and underside of the ion appear to be (front end mods gave a negligible aerodynamic drag decrease, meaning it's almost perfect), they neglected to mold up a cheap piece of plastic to bridge the gap between the rear suspension and the bumper. it also perplexes me that while they made the mud flaps aerodynamically beneficial (they are flish with the wheel, not adding to the frontal area of the car, and actually help smoothly transition the airflow to the bumper), they kicked in the rocker panel area to make a rough transition between the front bumper and the front wheels, and the body and the rear wheels. they also could have molded up some wheel aero modifiers (see: underside of BMWs, mercedes, prius, ect... right in front of both the front and rear wheels) to help with a big part of drag.

elecblue06

iTrader: (1)

i got 41 mpg modded on my 2.4 on my trip a while ago (full bolt ons) from indiana to ny

Gestapo007

iTrader: (2)

i just cannot justify driving like a pus and having 0 fun in my car to achieve max MPG. YO BRO PUNCH IT! "um no friend. I cannot go past 10% throttle or else my mpg's plummet. This would abosolutely be devestating to me and I will just not have it. Now im going to draft this truck to achieve maximum aerodynamics"

How about u just buy like 1 store brand item a month over a name brand and theres ur gas savings right there. drive like a normal human being now

2007 ion2

When it means the difference between a $500 move, and a $600 or higher move, I can forgo any "fun". As far as in my car, that's what my mods are for, I won't draft a truck, and I have yet to drive to load, but on trips, and sometimes around town, I will not accelerate up hills, or only get up to 25 to get up the hill, then finish once I crest. If you drive a lot, these simple things, like not punching it, can save you a lot of money.

2007 ion2

Well, my led conversion is complete, every bulb is led except the headlights and fogs. This will decrease alternator load from the lighting system significantly, last longer, and just look good. I also made a custom gauge pod for my scangauge II to make it go on the steering column, right behind the wheel.

roderick

haha nice! I get like 30 driving highway but in town when I want to kick it down and have fun I get like 15-20 haha

army_greywolf

iTrader: (2)

i KNOW, I have had clear protective decals on my car for a WHILE, I use them at the track in combination with blue masking tape to keep the paint from chipping to ****. And I put them on if I intend to take a long roadtrip. Not the masking tape just incase you read too far into that.

I am far from a cheapass, I do things sometimes just because.

05Slowline

iTrader: (2)

lmfao.
comon man the speed limits 55 and you're pissing off everyone thats stuck behind you...
yes, but i have calculated just last night that with the current wind conditions generating a speed greater than 43.6 mph will lead to decreased mpg by .00043 as opposed to doing 55. *** yea.

2007 ion2

While the ignorant may laugh, driving style alone can net near 100% gains in mileage. I am simply taking proven aerodynamic modifiers from production cars and applying them to an ion, while maintaining normal driving for me, the same way I have driven for years.

kingg5

iTrader: (1)

since when is coroplast and cardboard proven aerodynamic modifiers from production cars?

ls1fbody

in for LULLLLLZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZORRRRRRRRZZZZZZZZZ Z

ecot3c inside

iTrader: (11)

Next!

05Slowline

iTrader: (2)

just think what would happen if you put this much effort into something that actually matters

2007 ion2

Coroplast is a material, not a modifier, *******. Modifiers, like under body pans, or tire air dams, usually made from plastic as cheap as or moreso than coroplast. By people like gm, toyota, mercedes, volvo, vw group, ect... Cardboard is only for template and proof of concept use, it's free, so it costs nothing to try.

.380ACP

This

cph430

Eh, to put my .02 in not sure why everyone is getting on the OP so hard. He's simply stating ideas he's trying to accomplish a goal that interests him. I've seen far worse things done to cars on this site with much less criticism from the community about it.

The people arguing that the gains aren't needed, well that can be said about most of the performance modifications the people on the forum do and just as I plan to do. Do I want to increase the power of my car significantly and add some aesthetic mods to my car, of course. Will I ever bring my car to a track to make full use of those modifications? Probably not. As for suggesting to buy a Prius if you want a truly efficient vehicle, the same could be told to all of us who want more performance to just go buy a Camaro or Corvette. We all choose some niche to pursue with these cars, and although I would never go through this much effort to increase my MPG I say props to the OP.

2007 ion2

Just rear wheel skirts had no effect, going to try front and rear together today

JL-KA

iTrader: (4)

What the hell?
In for...lulz? ...brain damadge from reading this?
not sure...time will tell

slobalt08

iTrader: (2)

Wow you know what.... that is some creative thinking. When final testing is done and you figure everything out, you should mass produce this for us balts! Also it helps keeping things cleaner on the underbody which is always a plus for us that deal with snow. Also guys I wouldn't laugh at this guy. He's on to something. That mod you have where you block the grill works. Why? Anyone ever see ice road truckers and the trucks have this canvas blocking the grill or only allowing so much air to come in? Its to keep heat in, and this same concept can work for all of our cars providing that said person lives in an area where it gets decently cold like anything below 30f id say. Also I've observed that accelerating slowly. And using little gas as possible to get up to desired speed uses more gas. How? Lack of power to get up to speed making the engine work more. I can tell by the instant mpg display. If I give it some decent gas but not too much maybe 15-20% and shift at 3k I get a lot better mpg according to average mpg. You don't wanna accelerate too slow but you don't wanna accelerate too fast either. I'm getting 26.7mpg city doing it that way. And that's my newest highest mpg record for city driving. And maybe like 5% highway and barely enough to make a difference in mpg.

haymakercobalt

I love how this guy is getting flamed for trying something new. It might not look the best and i sure wouldn't do it to my car, but what he's doing has been proven to work on other cars.