first off, 94 civic 4 door sedan. Im wondering if i stand to gain mpg without sacrificing handling/safety by attaching a 6-8inch long piece of coroplast & diy vg's on my trailing edge in an attempt to reduce the amount of disturbed air/wake following the vehicle. Fastening it with out making any permanent marks on the car is a different story, but that will be tackled at a later time.
i tried to illustrate with rough drawing of what i have in mind. I would be attaching the leading edge across the entire trunk door equal height as seamless as possible angled down towards the ground. I'm uncertain of the angle, but trial and error tuft testing is my plan to see what the steepest angle i can get without airflow separation. from leading edge to trailing edge 6-8 inches as to avoid license plate/tail lights obstruction. Just prior to the leading edge, add small VGs to help prevent premature separation.
my thoughts on the benefits:
reduce drag caused by "suction" on the rear of the car
i already have enough spare coroplast so it would be nice to find a use for it.
concerns:
increased rear end lift resulting in decreased handling/braking
on a hatchback, what is the advantage of a cam back creating earlier airflow separation rather than an attempt to keep it attached. It just seems like backwards thinking to me by forcing a larger wake.
feel free to dumb things down for me, i understand some of the basic concepts but I'm still learning.
Vortaflow + Torbjörn Gustavsson