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Old 11-23-2017, 07:21 PM   #7 (permalink)
California98Civic
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Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Coastal Southern California
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Black and Green - '98 Honda Civic DX Coupe
Team Honda
90 day: 66.42 mpg (US)

Black and Red - '00 Nashbar Custom built eBike
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 14'ecocruze View Post
I'm seeing a pretty solid consensus that the aero effect would be minimal. Really wish I had a way to test how much drag it added without and wind tunnel. The upper grill block gave me in the ballpark of 4 mpg on my daily commute. How much of that would be the reduction of drag and how much is attributed to faster warm up time. Just thinking if I made a smooth edge to the bottom of license plate to help contour air up to the face of the plate. It would allow the air to run smoothly over the plate and over upper grill block and continue as normal through the flow of the cars curvature.
I think the relatively tiny turbulence created by the plate is probably "masked" by other, greater sources of turbulence further down the line, especially at the trailing edges of the car (window and decklid). More attention back there, or under the car with an undertray, would possibly be much more significant for you. ...just an untrained opinion...

EDIT: a video from a wind tunnel featuring your Cruze body type:
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See my car's mod & maintenance thread and my electric bicycle's thread for ongoing projects. I will rebuild Black and Green over decades as parts die, until it becomes a different car of roughly the same shape and color. My minimum fuel economy goal is 55 mpg while averaging posted speed limits. I generally top 60 mpg. See also my Honda manual transmission specs thread.



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