groar's 1997 Megane Modding Thread

[groar]

I just updated the pictures in the last 2 pages :

• groar's 1997 Megane Modding Thread - page 4
  • RIP uglyback... Here is the uglycover
  • And here are the uglyteethes...
• groar's 1997 Megane Modding Thread - page 5
  • And here is the miniback...
  • Front wheel deflector
  • Mini open tail
  • CoastDownTesting of the minitail

They were in png format and I converted them into jpg as it seams that lots of Internet Explorers doesn't support this format
Another reason is that they were relatively heavy, 4-5 times more than what the jpg are currently

Please, do tell me if you can't see them.

Have fun,

Denis.

[groar]

Because since a few weeks jerks are taking pictures of Megane while they are driving I decided to paint the mods in black

I untapped everything, washed the car (it deserved it), painted every chloroplast sheet and re-tapped most of mods. I didn't tapped the trunk cover as the couple roof extension and trunk extension may have a closed efficiency. I'm waiting to see how effective painting in black is on jerks before tapping the mini open tail.

Here are some pictures, naked vs black mods :

• the side, naked vs black mods :
  
  
• the front side, naked vs black mods :
  
  
• the front, naked vs black mods :
  
  
• details of the front black mods :
  
  
• the rear side, naked vs black mods :
  
  

Hope I will not have jerk anymore, I hate seeing people driving while they are taking pictures how can they concentrate on taking pictures ? (or phoning, or eating, or...)

Have fun,

Denis.

[Piwoslaw]

Finally!!
Nice job, your Megane looks much better now
It will attract much less attention now, but you'll still get an occasional jerk every now and then.
My mods are colored the same as the rest of the car, but I've had people take pictures or even roll down the window and yell questions at 80km/h! Idiots.

[groar]

Some front wheel skirts could be great but too much complicated for me to be done in a safe way

You may have seen this picture in a previous post :


The picture has been taken so the right wheels are aligned. You can see that the rear side of the wheel well upper half is much more external than its front side, which makes me think about a parachute effect

Inspired by NeilBlanchard's scion XA (see post 244 in page 25 : Scion xA aero mods) I build some front wheel tops (in opposite to full length skirts).

Here are two pictures :



At full stop and at very slow speed the wheel doesn't touch the top. I had to turn at much higher speed and with the steering wheel at max right position to hear the left wheel rubbing against the top, but it didn't moved.

If I cut some more chloroplast to put it at the rear side of the front wheels, as did NeilBlanchard, I'm afraid that they will be ejected by the parachute effect as soon as I will leave the city...

If the tops survive a couple days then I will paint them in black

Denis.

PS shouldn't I change my nick to be something like chloroplasTapper ?

[Piwoslaw]

Very nice. When I saw the first head-on picture I also thought about that. It seems that alot of '90's cars have front wheelwells which stick out in the back, this morning I noticed it on an Opel Astra. I guess it's like a mudguard? Maybe front wheel deflectors are a good idea? I think a few ecomodders have experimented with them.
I'm looking for some kind of rubber I can use, but first I will have to see how low the front of my car gets when fully loaded, and where and how the wheels stick out when fulled turned.

[PaleMelanesian]

Some food for thought, looking specifically at the front wheels this time.

Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com - aerohead's Albums

[groar]

Originally Posted by PaleMelanesian

Some food for thought, looking specifically at the front wheels this time.

Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com - aerohead's Albums

Thanks for the link, I have years of food for thought

About the front wheels, I thought about extending the front wheel deflectors up to the front wheel tops a couple minutes after my last mail... and thought about that all day long...
In my todo for tonight I wanted to complete the sides of the roof extension, but thanks to your encouragements (and your 1108 mi tank that I have to beat) I created the half front wheel arches, pictures :

• Side :
  I know that I have no talent to draw arcs or complex shapes, so... I just tapped a bigger piece first, moved the steering wheel to see where the tire was rubbing and draw two simple lines.
• Front :
  I tried to take the picture with both right wheels aligned as I was doing in previous pictures. It adds frontal surface only at the lower part. I have the feeling, and hope that this frontal surface increase is canceled by a Cd decrease.
• Front side :
  and this is the current status...

Drive tested it on 20 km (12 mi), included some city driving with quick turns, heard no noise and they have no trace of rubbing

Denis.

[PaleMelanesian]

That was fast!

[groar]

I put back all the back mods on the megane :


The mini open tail stays strongly on the car, only with half a dozen squares of double side tape per side and strong tape. Sadly the black tape doesn't stay as well as the gray one, the reason is that the painted chloroplast and black tape are getting very hot, but the rear door blocking the rear wheel skirt do secure the whole thing.

I consolidated the rear cover with some expanded polystyrene :

The polystyrene sheet is taped to the cover with some double side tape. Once I drove 200km (124mi) with 3 tree leafs inside the covert and they stayed there

I also rebuild the front :


The goal was to lower the lower part and to lower the stagnation point :

You can see a piece of expanded polystyrene which consolidate the external part. It's taped to the chloroplast with double side tape and pushed frontward by the front spoiler.

The middle part has also been consolidated with expanded polystyrene pieces :


Denis.

[groar]

Not really a mod, but a very simple thing to do and this do change the reaction of people on the road :

It says "consumption 67mpg - 1056mi/tank - and you ?".

Before that the reactions were mainly by young males driving tuned cars and thinking that the only reason to have a car is to go fast. Which is more than funny when their rear doors have sunshades with childish cartoon characters

Now I have several everyday noticeably from ladies and old people

But with or without this paper, the best overall is the smiles ans astonished eyes from children seeing the car

Have fun,

Denis.