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Old 08-18-2008, 07:32 PM   #26 (permalink)
MetroMPG
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: 1000 Islands, Ontario, Canada
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Blackfly - '98 Geo Metro
Team Metro
Last 3: 70.09 mpg (US)

MPGiata - '90 Mazda Miata
90 day: 52.71 mpg (US)

Even Fancier Metro - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage top spec
90 day: 70.75 mpg (US)

Appliance car - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage ES (base)
90 day: 52.48 mpg (US)
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Hi Donee -

Mitsubishi measured the boundary layer thickness at the trailing edge of the Evo roof at 30 mm - just over 1 inch, which is close to the height of the AirTabs (1 inch = 25.4 mm).

In testing different VG heights, Mistubishi says:

Quote:
...the drag reduction effects for the VGs of three different heights (15 mm, 20 mm and 25 mm) were all equivalent to –0.006.
That's not to say the AirTab is the ideal shape though. Again going back to the Mitsu example, they specifically chose a VG style (delta-wing shape) because it had a small frontal area. The AirTabs seem to have quite a large frontal area (even considering they create a pair of vortices), and that may be part of the reason why they didn't reduce overall drag & show any fuel economy improvement.

chuckm - an AirTabs distributor sent some to me.
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