The more I dig into this car, the more optimization I see. Its great to see what they've done with it.
Tonight I was digging around the front grill looking at how I'll be blocking up the front and eventually doing a belly pan. The first thing I noticed is they already did a mod I did to the Paseo a while back. They have foam stuffed around the radiator to force more air through it instead of around it!
The black plastic (top) is the radiator fan shroud, the grey bottom is the lower frame member.
Here is a shot on the left side of the radiator. There appear to be no gaps that haven't been plugged.
So, as I dug a bit farther, I find out they did the mod I wanted to do on the Paseo, but was a bit too complex. They sealed the area between the grill inlet/bumper cover and radiator to flow air only through the radiator! Good stuff. Left side is the radiator, right side is the lower grill.
At the same time, it kind of makes me angry that they don't do this to conventional vehicles. This is by no means a hybrid specific modification...