Aero'd 07 Aveo

[Wonderboy]

My friend bought an Aveo in attempts to drive his Van less after seeing the results of my aero mods.
Here it is, all stock. It's a 5speed.

Here is the wheel well I had to work with - the aft part (the rear bumper) of the well dips inwards under the plane of the tire. this made things a little complicated, but nothing worthy of an additional picture.

In progress...

Finished skirt

Finished grille blocks

Full finished view


While I was driving it to get some of the hardware I needed for the installation, I got some nice flat stretches of highway where I got an idea of a baseline MPG - about 36-37. When I was finished I went to that same stretch and saw numbers like 42-43. (All at 55mph, very little wind) Hopefully I will be able to convince him to join the forum to give us accounts of his increased FE first-hand, but I will give an update once he does a couple more tanks to see if he sees any significant difference.
I was thinking about doing some science stuff with the AABBABlah...yeah I didn't do it. The means by which I attached the grill blocks weren't as easily removable as the ones on my car, so I trashed that idea. I know these mods made a diff. on my car, so I do expect a sizable increase in FE for this car.

[2000mc]

Originally Posted by Wonderboy

I was thinking about doing some science stuff with the AABBABlah...yeah I didn't do it.

i wouldnt be worried about the grill block myself, but i'm thinking svoboy or someone witha civic/crx/honda tried some wheel skirts that ended up reducing mileage

[SVOboy]

Nice job! Looks pretty good too. I think silver is probably one of the best colours for aeromodding.

[SVOboy]

Originally Posted by 2000mc

i wouldnt be worried about the grill block myself, but i'm thinking svoboy or someone witha civic/crx/honda tried some wheel skirts that ended up reducing mileage

This wasn't me. Perhaps you're thinking of darin's recent coastdown testing of his front wheel skirts which ended up showing that they increase drag?

[2000mc]

i thought it was several months ago atleast, and rear skirts.... or im just crazy

[SVOboy]

Originally Posted by 2000mc

i thought it was several months ago atleast, and rear skirts.... or im just crazy

You're probably not crazy, it just wasn't me and I'm forgetting the thread

[2000mc]

i think i might have done a poor job recalling Wheel skirts slowing me down?

...but while i was looking for that i saw a thread where metrompg said (i'm parapharasing) he thought that having less body behind the rear wheels for air to reaattach made rear wheel skirts more important.

great news if your working on an aveo

wonder if thats also realated to the front wheel skirts not working

[kopid03]

how exactly did you attach the wheel skirts? I have an '04 aveo and I want to make a pair for it.

[Wonderboy]

I did these the exact same way I did the skirts for my car (linked to in the first post)... I truly am sorry for not taking more photos of the steps during the process - I just get going and want to keep working. I need a photographer to follow me .. Anyway, I use aluminum stock from a local hardware store, home improvement store. I'm not sure about the exact gauge, but it's not anything too heavy. I cut 3 aluminum "L" brackets, about 2cm wide. I then mount them to each side of the wheel well, and the top (I use little self-tapping metal screws, and make the holes in the L-bracket before mounting them. I then mount them to the wheel well, just tapping directly into whatever material is in that area of the wheel well. For this car there was an existing mount hole available in the aft of the wheel well, so I just used that with the stock screw. Reusing this existing screw hole made it impossible to use a regular L-bracket because it is set back into the wheel well too far for the coroplast to stay flush with the fender around the wheel well. For this I made my own L-bracket out of 1 inch wide aluminum stock (very bendable) that reached out far enough to make things flush. I also bent it so that it is at an angle greater than 90 degrees to make the bend in the coroplast less dramatic around the outside of the wheel. Once finished with all of the brackets, I shape that 1" wide aluminum from the front bracket to the back bracket so that it sits as closely and aerodynamically graceful as possible to the wheel. Then take the wheel off, put the band back on, and get the coroplast sheet. Hold the flat portion of the sheet to the bottom of the aluminum band, hold it to the fore side, reach behind and trace with a marker, then carefully keep the coroplast in the same vertical position, roll it over the rest of the band to trace the remainder. If you don't do this and just trace the wheel well, your skirt piece won't be wide enough to accommodate the curvature of the aluminum band, and you will have wasted a reasonably large piece of plastic. Then cut, paint (optional), and screw it in. I'm a lot better with tin snips than a razor, but that's up to you.

[alohaspirit]

if you could get a few shots of the wheel covers off,
im sure we can see how you attached them