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I recently added some more aero mods (complete rear wheel skirts, side skirts, 4 wheel spoilers) to my 92 Civic CX (aerocivic), which has resulted in a noticably improved coasting ability. Even though I was nowhere near empty, I figured the recent unpleasantness in the Mid-East would cause gas prices to start to climb, so I gassed up the car today and calculated the mileage (my car is too old for Scangauge). Got 79MPG in a driving regime (trips up into the NC mountains) that would normally have netted me 66 to 70MPG before these mods. Since before adding these mods I was getting 87MPG in rural SC driving, if the same differential holds true, I should now be able to get upper 90's MPG while driving on the rural roads of SC. The mods only cost me $10 in materials, so it shouldn't take too long for them to pay for themselves in gas savings.

aerocivic
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/MikeMariettaSC/70MPG%20Honda%20civic/CivicC.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

Front wheel spoiler
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/MikeMariettaSC/70MPG%20Honda%20civic/CivicCb.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

Rear wheel spoiler and part of side skirt
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/MikeMariettaSC/70MPG%20Honda%20civic/CivicCa.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

Hi Basjoos:

___Could you shrink your pics to maybe a width of 600 pixels or less? You are wasting bandwidth with the sizes they are presently posted in :( Let me know if you want me to do the same as your first 3 links are FUBAR and the last 2 are a bit to large.

___Great idea on the air dams. I posted some pics of the Accord’s a few months back for Dan but I do not think he ever got around to installing them? They are installed on the Corolla as well.

___20 + mpg is quite a bit with aero mods alone and especially at speeds of 55 mph or under. A bit of info on technique would be appropriate about now I would guess?

___Good Luck

___Wayne

I broke the links to those pics, so they won't be wasting bandwidth any more. I'll post smaller pics in the future.

The increased mileage is a combination of aero mods, warm air intake, and driving technique. The warm air intake was an inadvertant effect of the grill block. Cooling air enters through a 4"x4" opening at the center of my grill and then exits through the openings into the front wheel wells and through the tunnel I made around the exhaust pipe. This put the ICE air intake (at the front right corner of the engine compartment, out of the main air flow path, so it gets warmer air. I notice a slight reduction in power on hot, muggy days, but results in improved MPG's. The slicker that I can make the car, the better that it coasts. The better that it coasts, then it takes less of a downhill to maintain speed. Since I FAS whenever I am on a speed-maintaining downhill that lasts longer than 8 sec., I am FAS'ing on a lot of slight downhiils that I used to power on down. Traffic permitting, when I FAS, I let the speed drop below my selected cruising speed before restarting the ICE. So as I keep lowering my car's Cd, and being able to FAS on every slight downhill along my route, my driving has become a closer approach to pulse driving, which is probably responsible for part of the mileage increase. But even in normal driving, I've seen a significant improvement in my mileage. Back in April, when the only aero mods I had installed was the grill block, undebody panelling, and partial read wheel well skirts, I made a trip to Savannah, GA via I-26 and I-95 in heavy traffic. Travelling at 75mph (slow for I-95) with the slower traffic, I got 63MPG. If I made that same trip today, that figure should be better.

Hi Basjoos:

___I didn’t really mean it like that as CleanMPG is only running upwards of 10% of her bandwidth allotment to date. It is members still locked into 56K dial-ups that I was considering? I never saw the first 3 as the links were broken? You can post away but consider a 600 or a 400x pic vs. the 922 + x pics in the future for those without high bandwidth connections is all.

___Here are your CX pics at 537 x. I will remove these (2) posts once you have linked them in your own …

Basjoos’ Aero-modded Civic CX - side view
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/Basjoos_Civic_VX_Side_View.jpg

Basjoos’ Air dam mods on his Civic CX - high
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/Basjoos_Civic_VX_Front_Air_Dam_High.jpg

Basjoos’ Air dam mods on his Civic CX
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/Basjoos_Civic_VX_Front_Air_Dam.jpg

___Good Luck

___Wayne

basjoos I hope you don't mind if I show others your incredible numbers.

I post in a few forums around the net, and also that you don't have to buy an expensive hybrid car to save. People just don't believe your numbers (Or mine) so I lead them to CMPG, and the mileage log.

I really like the Mods you've done to your car!
-Steve

awesome job. we have a 83 civic sedan that hubby gets about 45mpg with. i wonder if it would work as well on that one.

Wayne,
The pics of Basjoos's car say Civic VX. Let me point out that he has a CX with a DX ICE. That makes the numbers even that more impressive.

Hi Dan:

___Fixed ;)

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Here are the downsized pics:
Aero-modded 92 Civic CX (w. DX ICE), has underbody panels, grill block, rear wheel well skirts, side skirts, gap filling
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/MikeMariettaSC/80MPG%20Honda%20Civic/CivicCS.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

Front wheel spoiler
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/MikeMariettaSC/80MPG%20Honda%20Civic/CivicCbS.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

Rear wheel spoiler and part of side skirt
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/MikeMariettaSC/80MPG%20Honda%20Civic/CivicCaS.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

One effect I have noticed from the aero mods if that I leave a much smaller wake behind me. It used to be when I passed by an empty beer can on the road, It would be left skittering across the road and when I passed an empty plastic grocery bag on the road, it would often be lifted up into the air behind the car and sometimes do a piroette in the trailing vortexes. Now when I pass the can it moves about a foot from its initial location and the bag slides about 2 to 3 feet along the road. There is also a lot less dust on the rear window after driving on dirt roads.

So you need to IMG rather than the TAG onthis board.


92 Civic CX
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/MikeMariettaSC/80MPG%20Honda%20Civic/CivicCS.jpg

Front wheel spoiler
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/MikeMariettaSC/80MPG%20Honda%20Civic/CivicCbS.jpg

Rear wheel spoiler and part of side skirt
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/MikeMariettaSC/80MPG%20Honda%20Civic/CivicCaS.jpg

How come you've got the little wheel spats mounted so far
inboard, sort of straddling the inner edge of the tire instead
of the whole tire? I found the prius to be sort of the same,
and *moved* the front ones outward and angled slightly back
in an effort to really divert flow around the tire instead of
letting air hit half of it straight on. But I could easily
be misunderstanding the proper function of wheel spats...
.
_H*

What you are seeing is an optical delusion as a result of the camera angle, the spoilers are mounted right in front of the tires (back wheels) or as close as I could get them without part of the spoiler hanging off the edge of the car (front wheels) since the tires stick out slightly from the car at the bottom of the frame.

That's awesome. I didn't think aero mods made such a difference at low speeds.

Yup, after ~20-25mph, aero becomes the primary source of drag on a vehicle. At ~55mph, it's ~fifteen times greater than rolling friction. So unless you drive everyplace at 20mph, reducing drag will help out big time.

basjoos,

Thank you for the normal-size picture of the custom rear-wheel covers!

I'm really surprised at the difference your air mods have made! You've inspired me to add some to my own vehicle. I've always considered myself somewhat of an environmentalist and have recently become very concerned with global warming. I became very motivated after watching "An Inconvenient Truth." (I've swapped about 40 bulbs at my house for compact flourescents and have been preaching efficiency to everyone I meet with some positive effect) I've been researching hybrid and subcompact vehicles extensively but after reading your posts I'm inspired to try significant aero mods on my current vehicle. Have you considered weight reduction as an added technique? Gutting the inside of your car would reduce weight by more than 100lbs I would imagine, but you may not be willing to live with the reduced comfort and stark look. How are you planning to cover the front wheel wells while still allowing the wheels to turn freely. Will the front covers bubble out? What about lowering your suspension? You'd have reduced frontal area and less air flowing on the more turbulent underside.

antrey, you should balance out the added weight of aero mods vs reduced drag.

The best thing you can do is learn to drive better. Its free, and will give you more of a gain in fe than mods. Only start to worry about aerodynamics when you have mastered driving for FE. Otherwise you won't realy know if you are becoming a better driver or if the mods did anything.

antrey, you should balance out the added weight of aero mods vs reduced drag.

The best thing you can do is learn to drive better. Its free, and will give you more of a gain in fe than mods. Only start to worry about aerodynamics when you have mastered driving for FE. Otherwise you won't realy know if you are becoming a better driver or if the mods did anything.

Ditto. Improved driving technique coupled with making sure your base setup (engine maintainance and proper tire pressure) will get you more gains, and very quickly if you are willing to put in some effort. Then you can perform the aero mods, which will be much more meaningful when your baseline is higher.

Welcome to cleanMPG! Care to post a quick bio in the intro section?

antrey, you should balance out the added weight of aero mods vs reduced drag.

There's a huge difference in force due to weight versus force due to aero drag. We'd pop the tires before we got rolling friction up to fluid friction@30+mph.

I realize that driving technique is the most important followed by wind resistance and weight in a distant 3rd. Since basjoos is very close to maximizing his driving skill and aero mods I was brainstorming about another area to attack, weight. More than reducing rolling resistance, I was thinking that weight reduction would make acceleration more efficient.

On my vehicle, I've done some experimentation with driving technique and the difference between "normal" driving and driving for fuel economy is about 30%. With further development of my FE driving skills, aero mods, and engine tuning, I would like to attain a 50% improvement.


A post showing a fuel economy chart for my vehicle can be seen near the bottom of the page at:
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=892067&page=1&pp=25