[ncc74656m]

Hey guys,

So, I'm new here, obviously. I just surfed on in while looking for a couple things related to hypermiling for a thread on another forum. After reading a thread or two of interest, and meeting someone on here from an old forum, I decided why not hang around?

Anyway, let's get to the real discussions here.

First off, I would like to start off by saying that I am largely interested in performance of my car, but most of the performance I like is handling more so than speed. Even so, I tend to be a lead foot, so between harder acceleration and higher top speeds, I know I don't come close to the potential of my car.

On an average tank (12 gallons if I squeeze it, but I think it's rated as a 10 or 11), I'll get anywhere from 300-350 MPT. Most of the time it's closer to 350, and I of course never let the tank run dry, so I usually would estimate having a gallon or so left based on meter and on how much I pump.

I have gotten extremely high MPGs on a single tank in the past, this is mostly due to having a manual and having cruise control. On long stretches of highway, especially on long trips (say 100 Miles+) I will frequently just put it on cruise control and stay between 55-65 MPH, depending on the law and flow of traffic. On one such trip I was around 470 miles on my tank, and I still had near quarter tank left.

Obviously I won't come close to 500 miles to a tank again while doing my normal short trips, but I do want to try to at least pull more even with my magic number of 400. Now, obviously if I can hypermile it a bit, it would really be great to push over 400 regularly.

Of course, I need to combat my urge to drive like a bat out of hell, and New York traffic makes that nearly impossible. So instead, I'd rather just do my best to streamline my car while not looking totally ridiculous, and also maintaining my handling and the like.

My first mod will be to begin to build a custom front baffle for my Corolla that will be designed to look like a factory part of the car that will block out the grille as this was determined by another user here to not be central in any way to the cooling system of the Corolla. Most of its air is redirected from the lower opening which apparently is also considered "too wide."

After that, I may attempt to do a custom belly plate as has been done here on one or two of the Matrixs I've seen. Yes, I know the plural of that is Matrices, but since it is a brand name, I wasn't sure on the technicality of it still applying.

Anyway, I was wondering what your guys thoughts were on where to start and all that? My primary mods will pertain to aerodynamics, followed thereafter perhaps by any viable engine modifications. I will be starting an official build thread soon, we'll see how far I take it.