Old square sedan kammback

[Joris]

Couple of days later, after washing and cleaning everything, some pictures of the trip.
Just over two weeks, travelled 4100 km through France without any problems Fuel consumption hovered between 30 and 35 miles per gallon. My goal was 40 miles per gallon, but the girlfriend wanted me to drive faster. So I think 40 is possible when I drive slower and on flat terrain.

First stop was Lake Annecy,



The Chamonix glacier,


Col d'Iseran (2770 meter)




Then we went to La Drôme,


We then spend a couple days in the Ardèche,



Before heading to Paris. Seen most touristic things there.


Didn't want to go home yet, so we went to Le Mont-Saint-Michel near Normandië instead.

[wmjinman]

Very nice pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Kamm back is looking good, too. You're motivating me!

[Cd]

Very impressive workmanship, and very clever ideas you came up with for mounting the tail.
I'm glad to see you decided to keep the aluminum unpainted, since it goes well with the color of the car.

The vacation pictures are beautiful. Makes me want to travel.

[renault_megane_dci]

Glad you had good holidays.

30 to 35 is pretty good for a 2.3 liter car on everyday driving.

Engine capacity and lowish gear ratio are your main enemies I believe.

Very nice pics by the way.

[samwichse]

Looks amazing! The only thing I might want to change, since you've made a nice metal cover anyway, is to remove the trunk lid entirely and make the clear plastic piece in back go down where the trunk lid used to. It'd save you some weight and be amazing for parking.

But making it weather tight would be... difficult.

[MetroMPG]

Wonderful pictures! I've seen some of those places ... but only in photos / TV.

I like Le Mont-Saint-Michel -- get out before the tide comes up!

[Pepperoni]

Awesome work!
Would it be much worst if the kamm back had sharp edges? It would be easier to work with the initial acrylics idea, and it would blend better with the "square box" aesthetics of the car.

[Varn]

So how much did the tailbox help your mileage?

[renault_megane_dci]

IIRC he also changed camshaft for a shorter one so we're very much talking ball-park improvement here.

[Joris]

Somewhere on here there is a topic about sharp edges and kammbacks. If I remember right the ideal curve was around 4" or something. So that is why the edges are rounded off. It would have been way easier to make something square, but I think this works and looks better to.

I'm not exactly sure how much the tailbox helped my mileage, but I think it is somewhere between 1.5 to 2.5 MPG. I do notice it when the tailbox is not on the car.

I now drive without the tailbox and without full wheelcovers (because of work), and I can feel that the car has more trouble fighting trough head-on and crosswinds. I also noticed that my vacuum gauge is reading lower than with the wheelcovers and tailbox. They make a notable difference.