I know i'm going against the grain here on EcoModder.com. I like things to look good. My last vehicle was completely form over function. the wheels rubbed the fenders, it had 3" straight exhaust off the turbine. 10" wide wheels with 225's stretched over them. I know looking good is relative and in this community duct tape and coroplast looks damn good when it raises your MPG.
The near future plans for my civic are to both make it look good (relative to normal car nuts
) and to extract the most MPG's out of it as I can without resulting to coroplast and duct tape!
I've always lowered cars and ran flush wheel fitments for looks, but as I'm wanting to modify my car and am leaning towards the same route, I can't help but think it will HELP my mpg's.
After this upcoming winter, I plan on lowering the car and putting it on some alloy wheels.
The wheels I have picked out are 8" wide, 2.5" wider than factory. I will also be running a 195 sidewall, vs 185. Now you guys are thinking.. He's adding wider wheels, with wider tires.. He's killing his small contact patch, and adding to his rolling resistance! Here is where form can equal function. Yes, i'm running a wider wheel, with a slightly wider tire. What i'm doing to offset that, is stretching a skinny tire, over a wide wheel. This strengthens sidewalls for cornering, as well as tightens down the tires contact patch significantly. Stretching a tire on a rim allows you to run more effective air pressures as you aren't losing air due to sidewall flex.
These wheels are very aggressive offsets that will require negative camber to fit in my fenders. Once again, negative offset's and aggressive fitment looks great, but also serves as a functional mod to my car. Reducing camber allows EVEN MORE tire to be taken off the pavement, thus reducing RR even more. (Safety nuts out there do not criticize, ackerman says I'll get my full contact patch back during cornering) I also believe that pushing the wheels out to the fender opening will reduce drag by diverting most of the air flow down the car, and not into the back of the wheel well. Last but not least, the 16x8" forged wheels that I'm picking up are 3lbs lighter per wheel than the stock 14x5.5" steelies. Once again, FORM equaling FUNCTION.
Does the EcoModder population agree with my theories, or am I just trying to justify making my car look good.. Also, I am open ears for any other FORM == FUNCTION mod's you have conjured up as an excuse to modify your vehicle outside of the FE realm.