Since finding and joining this site, I've begun to notice all sorts of things on cars and trucks related to aerodynamics. I've also thought how I might be able to apply some of these to my Dodge Sprinter to squeeze a few percentage points of fuel economy out of it. One that I noticed recently is on my girlfriends Honda CRV. I can't post a picture because of my low post count, but if you go here: "automobiles.honda.com/images/2011/cr-v/exterior-gallery/gal_lg11.jpg", you can see what I'm talking about. The bottom front area is sloped back like a skid plate would be on a larger truck. At the bottom of this there are 2 pieces that are lower than the rest of it. If they were in front of the tires, I would call them spats. But they are in addition to tire spats that are already there. And they are about equal distance from each other and from the inside edge of the tires. And there is nothing sticking down lower in the engine bay or suspension that they were covering up.
Now I seem to remember seeing a show on Speed Channel not long ago about the new Kenworth T700. They didn't go into details, but I remember seeing something similar on there, and it creating high pressure channels of air under the vehicle to help smooth out the airflow.
My question to you is does this sound plausible? There must be some merit to it because that picture is from the 2011 model and my girlfriends is an '07. It would be something very easy for me to make a few out of coroplast and attach to the existing air dam. Unfortunately, I don't have the time, equipment (scanguage), or resources (money) to do A-B-A testing. And my driving is too varied to say this is why I got 3% better mileage this tank over last. Mainly looking to the group to see if the theory is reasonable and sound...or complete BS.
Thanks!