If you haven’t heard by now, there’s a guy named Mike Turner who’s doing what most people would at first think impossible: getting 95 MPG in an old Civic. How did he achieve such an outstanding feat? Ecodriving and aeromodding.

An Ecomodder.com Forum member, Mike is well known for being one of the first to step out on a limb and make some radical modifications to his car. And better than just radical modifications, Mike’s had radical results, “95 mpg is what I typically get while driving at a constant speed from 30 to 65 mph on a flat road in 80 degree F temperatures with well broken-in tires.”

The most shocking thing, when hearing the 95 MPG figure, is perhaps that Mike is driving a 15 year old car, which was built long before hybrids even saw the market.

It would certainly be fair to say that Mike is now famous within the ecomodding community for his extensive modifications. Many of us (myself included), just don’t have the guts to go the extra mile, and we applaud his efforts for showing us how worth it it can be.

Mike combined highly-honed ecodriving skills with innovative aeromods to get the full package. At first, he began with engine-off coasting, driving with load (setting a target fuel economy and attempting to reach it at all costs), feathered acceleration, and plain old slowing down.

On the aeromodding side of things, as you can see in the original thread, Mike has decked out his car from the nose cone to the side skirts to the full boattail. For more pictures, see the bottom of the post.

Related links:

• More photos (19) of the Aerocivic
• Ecomodder Forum
  
• Ecodriver’s Ed – driving techniques
  
• Aerodynamic modifications discussion
  

From behind:

The nosecone:

You may have seen the Aerocivic already, but it certainly deserves even more attention than it has already gotten. Sure, it may be a little rough around the edges, but I’ll tell you why the aerocivic is worth so much talk: it’s not innovative.

It may get great gas mileage, but it’s not innovative.

Why then all the fuss?, you might ask. Well, the answer to that is a little bit more interesting. The aerocivic is a great display of very old knowledge finally being put to use. We’ve known for decades that aerodynamics plays a large roll in automotive design, so it’s really shocking that we never see aerodynamic concepts put to good use.

Basjoos is achieving great numbers with this car, as can be plainly seen in his fuel log. I know several people with Civic Hybrids, Prii, and other high mileage cars. But I don’t know anyone who consistently gets gas mileage like that at high speeds on the highways, do you? In effect, Basjoos has taken the road block that is major auto manufacturers out of the picture and ecomodded his own superior mileage machine.

The results speak for themselves:

The end result is a car with such low drag that the results of coastdown testing is linear out to 90mph (it coasts almost as well at 80mph as it does at 50mph). I have to get it over 90mph before I start to feel the wind load from high-speed driving. OEM max speed was 95mph. I have had it up to 100mph with plenty of power remaining at that speed (estimated top speed of about 140mph). Wind noise is much reduced from stock. Approximate mileage on a flat road at 85F, 95mpg at 30 to 65mph, 85mpg at 70mph, 65mpg at 80mph, 50mpg at 90mph.

So, indeed, kudos to you, Basjoos. Your vehicle is a shining example to individual ecomodders and even the stubborn auto industry.