2013 Subaru Sti side mirror delete coast down tests. Smaller side mirror tuft testing.
I finally got around to running more tests on my car. Side mirror delete coast down tests. The weather conditions changed during the course of the experiment, however I am still going to post my results because I don't want 4 hours of work to go to waste.
Time 12am -4am Pacific time
Temperature 60*F
Humidity: 9%
Wind: calm to 9mph from the northeast
Location: business district, late at night, flat road (slight grade), no traffic.
Method: from a stand still, drive up to 40mph, shift to neutral, coast down to 20mph, them time the results. Bi directional runs to average out the grade and wind.
Tools: Torque pro app, used a graph to measure speed (y axis) vs time (x) axis. Then after each run, I used the graph to see how many seconds it takes to go from 40-20.Very useful!
I have other mods installed (upper AMD lower grill block) but this test is for the mirrors because they are easiest to take off and on.
Mirrors on
Runs A:
39.9 sec
41 sec
Runs B
40.9 sec
41sec
Mirrors off
Runs A
38.5 sec
41.8 sec
47.5 sec (winds started to pick up)
46.6 sec
Runs B
42 sec
41.8 sec
41.4 sec
40.4 sec
Mirrors on again (still windy)
Runs A
45.7 sec
45.7 sec
Runs B
38.9 sec
39 sec
Mirrors off again (still windy)
Runs A
44.3 sec
45.7 sec
46.6 sec
Runs B
39.7 sec
40.1 sec
40.7 sec
Total average mirrors on: 41.41 sec
Total average mirrors off: 42.61 sec
Approx 2.82% increase in rolling time with the mirrors off. That's within the "noise" so in conclusion, this test was inconclusive. Next time I will.definitely need to test on a more calm day and also test at a faster speed, perhaps 60mph down to 30, because aero mods have more impact at highway speeds.
I'm also CAD designing a smaller aerodynamic mirror and did some tuft testing
Stock mirror
Here is the video. Passenger side is the small mirror. Driver side is the stock mirror in the open position. As you can see, the driver side tufts are flailing more violently than the passenger side.