5th generation civic hatchback - improving aerodynamics

[AndrewJ]

Today was my last day off before the MPG rally in Lacey so there was a lot of work to do on the ol' car.

First there was the business of flushing-up the solar panel in the kammback. Sure there's an unquantifiably small aerodynamic gain to be had, but it was mainly an aesthetic thing. It certainly looks a lot better flush-mounted.





You can see the little 1/2" nylon spacers that I used to lower the PV panel.






I also made little wheel spoilers/diverters that go ahead of the rear wheels and integrate into the side-skirts.







There were a few other little things, like tinkering with the mini-side-mirror, and the front wheel spoilers. But, like I said, minor changes so no pics

[Dradus]

Nicely done!

[Arminius]

Pretty impressive. I'm envious. You'll obviously need to avoid speed bumps, Andrew.

[Daox]

Originally Posted by Hayseed

Hey gang
I am new here but am intrigued by what you do.
Will shaving the door handles improve aerodynamics at all and FE?
It would at least look cool.

According to Hucho this will not make a measurable difference.

[MetroMPG]

Good luck at the rally, Andrew! I'm sure you'll be answering lots of questions...

[metroschultz]

I second that sentiment.
Good Luck
Enjoy yourself
Keep us posted
Schultz

[AndrewJ]

Something I forgot to mention yesterday amid my flurry of activity, I installed a little LED light in the dash that I wired into the radiator-fan relay.




Now any time that the radiator fan kicks in I'll know about it.

It kicks in more often that I thought

Not too often I guess, a time or two during the longest leg of my commute. when I opened up the grille opening it switches off within 15 seconds or so.

Still it's made me re-think the variable grille opening. I'm probably going to come up with a way to make the opening bigger...



When I got home my little digital voltmeter had arrived, so I went ahead and gave it a home in an unused compartment-thingie in the console.

Here's the old DMM on the dashboard setup. It always goes flying when taking a curve, so I'm glad to be rid of it.





Here's the new digital voltmeter.

[Funny]

You car is starting to look like it's from Back to the Future . "Great Scott!" Just keep your eyes on the road and not too much on the instrumentation. The job has been nicely done though. Do your neighbors still come out to look at the "weird neighbor"?

[trikkonceptz]

If you want a little more weight reduction I happen to have a Carbon Fiber hatch for that Civic, it eliminates the reverse lights and is very light weight.

PM me if interested and I will send you pics of it.

Good Luck..

[AndrewJ]

I'm literally about to dash out the door to go to the MPG rally, but I just filled up the tank and got....



68.52 mpg!!!

Holy crap!