Hello, it's me.
Just another person looking to improve his MPG on his wagon until long distance EV's become the norm. I regularly make a 400 mile trip, so I can't use an electric car now. I do have my beloved schwinn stealth though. Its my main way of commuting in my town.
Although I do use the car to carpool, or to get large amounts of groceries, etc. Anything that can't be done in the stealth.
The car is none other than the lesbaru.
Its a wonderfully practical car, the 2.5 engine and 3400 lb curb weight (plus my tools, plus about 50 lbs of soundproofing) make it fall in the 'not too swift' category. But even with its
9 Inches of ground clearance and ridiculously useful trunk space. It doesen't change the fact that gas is 3.50 a gallon, always going up, I sometimes have to put 400 mile trips on it, and well, I'm a cheap *******.
So here I am. I've been reading about aero modding and plan to do it soon, since its all high speed interstate travel (70 mph). I'm not too sure how extreme I want to go. I want to keep the car as practical as possible, if only because thats the whole purpose of it. I dont like the idea of lowering it or killing the approach angles. It sees some regular subaru abuse. Although increasing the underbody drag coefficient is just the excuse I need for some more 3/16 skid plates.
First thing I think I'm going to do is make the roof basket moveable. When on the interstate I can toss it inside the trunk, still have it, but save me a lot of drag with it off. I know it costs me 1~2 mpg, and with some sort of quick release it wouldnt be too much hassle.