3rd gen Prius aeromod thread

[MetroMPG]

elhigh: what type of driving & speeds?

[gasstingy]

My commute is 19.3 miles each way, ~half @ 55 mph, balance is mostly 45 mph. I leave before most of the morning rush hits, so I have a gentle commute. No tall mountains, (except on the weekends when we go to the "big city") but some rolling hills.

[MetroMPG]

gasstingy: that sounds about as ideal as it gets for knocking the EPA out of the park.

[gasstingy]

It really is. But for the challenge of getting the best fuel economy out of whatever I'm driving, it would be mind-numbingly boring.

[elhigh]

My commute is about 27 miles each way, but the wife has the car during the day and runs work errands in it. At least one offsite meeting every week, sales runs etc.

Morning: two miles of surface streets at suburban-45 mph speeds. Defrost on FULL because E Tennessee is humid. Then about 15 miles of interstate at up to 70, some long hills, some slowdowns. Then about 7 miles surface streets where carpoolers are dropped off (son and me), then wife takes it another three miles to her office.

Evening is reversed but more traffic and sometimes stopping for groceries.

Sometimes I choose slower routes that put the car deeper into its butter zone but it's false economy, the longer distances of those eat up any savings and then some.

[gasstingy]

elhigh,

Personally, I'd say that given the usage your Prius is subjected to, you and your wife are doing an awesome job to get that good of mileage.

Congratulations!

[Vman455]

I (finally) had some time this morning to continue work on the tail. I'm limited by not having a garage, so I think I'm going to rent a storage unit for a month where I can go at it with a surform and sanding block. I'm expecting copious amounts of polystyrene dust, so I can't really do that outside.

Continued roughing in the shape with a handsaw today:





You can see the cutouts for the taillights, and a couple weeks ago I sunk 4 more carriage bolts in the bottom board, just to make sure that attachment is strong enough.

[hayden55]

How has progress been, Vman? To go along with the crazy aero tricks, I remember a while back F1 Mclaren was testing some Aero wheel covers for the rear, and it was interesting to see what they came up with. Standard wheel covers keep outside air out, but they took it one step further and relieve pressure from inside the wheel area. Crazy how in-depth these people can get with money.

[Vman455]

The lid has started to go on:





I've got a plan for how I'm going to make it weather-proof so I can carpet the inside and have a nice trunk. The lower opening will be the trunk lid, and the upper is for a 30W solar panel I've had for a while and planned on putting on the car, just had nowhere to put it. That will keep my 12V battery topped off.

I'm planning to finish this in the next two months; I've got a road trip to New York in April (and possibly the Green Grand Prix), and I expect we'll have some good weather before then to fiberglass it. I have to get this thing out of the kitchen eventually!

[Daox]

Its looking really nice!