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View Full Version : 160,000 miles of aeromods and 1000's of dollars in fuel savings


basjoos
04-26-2011, 08:36 PM
I first started aeromodding my 1992 Honda Civic CX in 2005 after hurricane Katrina showed where gas prices could go and with no new inexpensive fuel efficient cars being sold at the time by the car manufacturers. The odometer was then at 390,000 miles. It has recently passed through 550,000 miles for a total of over 160,000 miles of driving with aeromods installed (and 42,000 miles of driving with the lean burn engine). In that time I have saved over $4600 in fuel savings over the mileage that the car would have had if left in its stock configuration. About half of that savings was due to hypermiling, the remainder was from the aeromods, which greatly improved my FE at normal highway speeds. Also 1000's of photos taken by passing motorists of the weird looking car.

WD-40
04-26-2011, 09:17 PM
I am totally in awe of your accomplishments, great job.

Kilo Delta
04-26-2011, 10:53 PM
Very cool looking ride. :)

KD

Chuck
04-26-2011, 11:10 PM
Mike,

I think you have "branded" your ride. :D

It just one of many tacts drivers can use to save gas.

groar
04-27-2011, 03:52 PM
My mods are far from Mike's quality but cost me only around 100€ (133$) (most for the painting so my mods are less visible). Over last 12 months I saved 970€ (1290$). Even if I consider hypermiling is 80% of my saving, and aeromods the remaining 20%, the ROI is around 6 months :cool:

But overall, aeromods have been priceless by permitting me to drive a car like no other one in its behavior. A fun side is to have to relearn the car when I modify it, or I make a maintenance, or I pump-up the tires, or simply when temperatures are increasing. Each little change has an impact on the behavior.

Thanks Mike, and all the hypermilers here, for all the fun you permit me to have everyday in my "car". My daily commutes are now relaxing moments and this is priceless :)

Denis.

basjoos
04-27-2011, 07:38 PM
The nice thing about aeromods is that it extends the speed range at which you can get good mileage (I'm getting over 60mpg on 80mph trips on the interstate) and pushed the drag wall well above any legal highway speed. It produces a car that can literally coast for miles on flat ground in an EOC, raises the speed at which you start to feel a wind load on the car to over 90mph so headwinds have very little effect on mileage, and eliminates wind noise. I wish I could buy a car with a Cd this low just for the effortless driving characteristics, but I can't, so I had to build my own.

gdsmit1
04-28-2011, 09:53 AM
Very cool, thanks for sharing.

bomber991
04-28-2011, 04:51 PM
I still have yet to do any aeromods on my car, but I'm getting closer all the time. I don't have any tools and I live in an apartment complex so I'd be doing all the modifications right in the parking lot. I also don't do nearly as much driving as you do, but yeah I'm pretty sure I can still get another 100k miles out of the car and so regardless of how often I drive, the mods would pay off eventually.

WriConsult
04-29-2011, 02:21 PM
Awesome !!

basjoos
04-30-2011, 07:53 PM
Forgot to mention. With the OEM car and normal driving I normally only got 440 miles from a tank of gas. After I started hypermiling it I stretched that out to 550 miles, but now through the combination of hypermiling, aeromods, and reducing rolling resistance, I'm at 800 miles per tank and can get over 1000 miles if I pack the tank when filling it. So I'm driving 800 miles for the same cost in fuel that used to only get me 440 miles down the road.
That extra range comes in handy when I have to spend a few days driving around in nearby states with higher gas taxes than mine.

LinuxGold
05-02-2011, 09:45 AM
Awesome Job basjoos!



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