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New Oregonian on ecomodder
Hello there,
I've always been a fan of this site and done a lot of reading but recently decided to get more involved...
I've been driving around old BMW's for the last couple years. They're gas mileage can be impressive for a car with old fuel injection, rear wheel drive, not being particularly light, and having a pretty bad drag coefficient, and a relatively powerful engine. I was able to get 30 mpg on some of my old 325e's (the e is supposed to mean eta or efficiency) with the 2.7L inline six. I was recently able to get over 30 mpg on my 325i (2.5L with really bad EPA mielage ratings) with a lot of mods that certainly weren't helping gas mileage just by changing to a longer gear ratio.
Anyways, I've always been interested in trying to mix ecomodding with performance (have two different fuel/timing maps for example, one for race, one for economy) but recently, after deciding to swap a new engine into my current BMW, I bought a 1999 Suzuki Swift for transportation. It was only $500 with 78k miles and in pretty good shape. After seeing that I easily got 40 mpg, I'm no longer so worried with ecomodding my BMW as I won't be driving it very much anymore.
I really want to use my Suzuki as my senior project for mechanical engineering. I've had to take a couple fluid dynamics classes and I want to try to apply some stuff I've learned (probably more from on this website than in my classes) to my Suzuki. I go to Portland State University, which like most things in Portland, is a 'green' oriented school, so I think my professors will like the idea.
Anyone in the area with a Metro/Swift/Firefly etc. that has done some aero mods?
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