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Old 03-23-2021, 11:09 AM   #39 (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: 54.46 mpg (US)

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

Appliance car Mirage - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage ES (base)
90 day: 62.14 mpg (US)
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Larger diameter tires for better gearing



With winter gone, I'm thinking of trying these old 15" Civic wheels that I have in my junk pile. Civic tires are 185/65/15, where the Mirage stock size is 165/65/14.

I plugged the tire numbers into this tool: https://www.blocklayer.com/tire-size-calculator.aspx

And it tells me that change would reduce engine RPM (in all gears) by ~8%.

At 80 km/h (~50 mph), the engine is turning around 2250 RPM on the stock tires. Those Civic wheels & tires would drop it to ~2070 rippems!

The final drive swap I did to my Firefly dropped cruising RPM by 20% and increased steady state cruising fuel economy by about 5%.

So all else being equal (it's not), this might net around 2% better MPG's.

Assuming I remember to adjust speed because the speedometer will be off (reading lower).

Pontential downsides that might cancel the gearing change:

A: They're heavier.
B: Multiple aero penalties: extra width, plus they'll raise the ride height a bit.
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