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Old 09-27-2020, 07:59 AM   #28 (permalink)
Vman455
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Yeah, and I'm not sure if I have a way of testing the increase in drag with any accuracy--since the Prius can't do throttle-stop testing. I might stick the spoiler on for my weekly hour-long drive (I teach one day a week this semester at a school an hour south of here) and see what happens; I've been getting just under 60 mpg depending on wind. Or, I might try the method from your book using a long hill; there's a section of interstate near here with a moderate grade for 1/2 mile. Or what I ended up doing with the air curtain ducts, measured fuel economy over a several-mile section of flat road with 3 or more runs in each direction in each configuration.

I tried reading engine load and horsepower on the Scangauge to see if rolling the windows down would show up, but there was no correlation--the problem, I think, is the variable torque from the electric motors. There's a MAF x-gauge I could use too but again, I think that would suffer from the same problem.

I might not get to do the Green Grand Prix this year because of Illinois' coronavirus positivity rate, which would have been at least a comparison of a long drive on a closed course with the two years I've done it already, the car in a different state each time.

If anyone has other ideas for testing drag changes...?
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