Interesting look at pop-up light and other bits on my car - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

texanidiot25 · 07-08-2008, 05:51 PM

Today I went out to wash all the tree pollen off the car, and decided to look at certain aspects in the car by spraying the water over it, and have my brother take pics.

Things studied:
Pop-up head lights
The air dam around the tires, with and with out it.
Side mirrors

lights up 1st:
With them down:

Up:

Striking difference. In person you can see the wave-effect it causes behind the light.

Next up is the stock air dam. 270,000 miles later, the passenger side of the air damn is missing, so this created an opportunity to see the effects of it:
The air dam itself:

Driverside, air dam intact:

You can see the water creates a clear and fairly smooth path around the tire.

Passenger side, no air dam:

(ignoring the sidewall of my tires.. getting new ones soon), it's obvious to see that the water hits straight on with blunt force. Going to fab up a replacement air damn soon.

The side mirror:

GM's Bullet shaped mirrors of the 70s, 80s and 90s are certainly cool looking.

In person there is a wave-effect in the wake of the mirror, and in the pics you can see the mirror mounting arm also has a large effect. But over all, IMO not too obstructive compared to larger mirrors today. When shooting the water at the edge of the windshield, it flows around the mirror quite well, being that they are tucked in close to the car.

Anyhoo, just some interesting stuff to look at. And some purty pictures.

SVOboy · 07-08-2008, 05:57 PM

Neat tests. I wonder if there's a mod to depopup the lights so that they're still useable.

texanidiot25 · 07-08-2008, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Neat tests. I wonder if there's a mod to depopup the lights so that they're still useable.

Gonna ask some friends of mine that own the Nissan 240sx what size their popup headlights are. I know there are many aftermarket flush mount kits for them.

Though that's an old RX7, the 240s have a similar shaped one to my car.

I'm not fond of the skinny grandprix lights I've seen on other car, and the stock ones. Not bright enough IMO, these are weak enough as is.

edit:
Found some of a 240sx here:

The grey area on the lense is custom painted, It's a tuner thing I guess...

Too expensive for me, but it's an interesting idea for others with pop-up lights.

Tango Charlie · 07-08-2008, 08:45 PM

FWIW; It's spelled 'air dam'

You just offended my 12 yr olds' tender sensibilities...

I've been contemplating what to do with my pop up lights on my Accord as well.

texanidiot25 · 07-08-2008, 10:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tango Charlie

FWIW; It's spelled 'air dam'

You just offended my 12 yr olds' tender sensibilities...

I've been contemplating what to do with my pop up lights on my Accord as well.

Whoah, that was on accident. lol, wasn't paying attention when writing this (docter said I had ADD or something, I don't remember, wasn't paying attention).

Fixed.

But anyhoo, another guy just welded his pop-ups shut and then used the older GrandPrix lights in place. Being that you have a Honda, and we all know how large the aftermarket is for them (some times a bad thing), see if any fixed headlights are available for your car.

Cd · 07-08-2008, 11:50 PM

Whoever thought of using water as a testing method is pretty clever !
The picture with the headlights up looks just like what you would see in a windtunnel.

I've always wanted to see what the underside of a T/A looks like. Thanks !

Can we see some more shots of how the air damn ... dam is set up ? It appears as if there is not a real 'scoop' there, but rather a flat panel that the air smacks into and gets pushed into the radiator. Can we see where the radiator is in reference to the air dam ?

Also, thanks for setting the white balance on your camera so that we could see the details in the dark areas. ( Or did you edit them in PhotoShop ? ).

Cd · 07-09-2008, 12:01 AM

I really love the look of those wheels, but I think they are hurting your fuel economy.
Not only are the recessed inwards to catch more air, but they also appear to be bent.

When was the last time that you had a wheel alignment ?

Off topic here : Here is a link to that Gale Banks T/A that we spoke about earlier. : http://www.gtasourcepage.com/galebanksturbogta.html

texanidiot25 · 07-09-2008, 12:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by .Cd

Whoever thought of using water as a testing method is pretty clever !
The picture with the headlights up looks just like what you would see in a windtunnel.

I've always wanted to see what the underside of a T/A looks like. Thanks !

Can we see some more shots of how the air damn ... dam is set up ? It appears as if there is not a real 'scoop' there, but rather a flat panel that the air smacks into and gets pushed into the radiator. Can we see where the radiator is in reference to the air dam ?

Also, thanks for setting the white balance on your camera so that we could see the details in the dark areas. ( Or did you edit them in PhotoShop ? ).

Thanks, I noticed this when I was a kid with a spray bottle and a hot wheels car that it acted much like a wind tunnel... Garden hose any a car later this is what I've got.

I'll jack the front up tomorrow and get pics. But, with out that air damn, these things will over heat in a snap, some of the larger GM cars of the 70s/80s are notorious for this. My dad's '79 EL Camino took a major hit on cooling when he took off it's lower airdam/chin spoiler to clear a rough road.

Quote:

Originally Posted by .Cd

I really love the look of those wheels, but I think they are hurting your fuel economy.
Not only are the recessed inwards to catch more air, but they also appear to be bent.

When was the last time that you had a wheel alignment ?

Off topic here : Here is a link to that Gale Banks T/A that we spoke about earlier. : Gale Banks' 1988 Trans Am GTA - HOT ROD Magazine, December 1987

I'm going to grab a set of those snap on moon wheel covers, like the gale bank's T/A. The rim lips were curbed, and a tad bent by my Aunt, so, ain't my fault lol. But there's no changing the stance on the car, even a stock set of wheels have the same off set out side the fenders. And there isn't room to put on a wheel/tire combo with less off-set on these cars.

Buts it's the effect of the picture. The Toe and alignment on this car is good, but the body shape does make it apear that each wheel truns out a bit when shot individually. I noticed that too when editing the pics.

twentysixtwo · 07-09-2008, 11:23 AM

Very cool. What you are seeing with the are dams just in front of the tires is what are know in the industry as "Tire Kickers" which push the air down around the tires. The front air dam does a lot of the same so that you don't have air flow over the underbody which has a lot of anti-aero crap (suspension and exhaust bits)

If you have a belly pan, the lower air dam would get a lot smaller.

twentysixtwo · 07-09-2008, 11:34 AM

BTW, noticed you have a spoiler. Most spoilers are cosmetic. Those that aren't cosmetic typically help reduce aero lift (Audi TT is prime example where lift at speed makes it unsafe, they actually had a recall to install spoilers)

Either way, this means more drag. Based on where it is on the Camaro, I'd suggest you could improve your aero by removing it, though there will likely be bolt holes left when you do.......