Recently took the car on a road trip 913km to the west. I had been carefully spending time building and testing until I ran out of time last minute. For the millionth instance; I built up several mods on the spot from scratch. Ran out of materials and had to call it a day before I could finish the diffuser.
Here are some pictures:
The result? Well…
Cooling is good. I added two strakes to help keep any large debris from getting sucked into the grille. The car held a constant and consistent 87-89 Celsius. I think it might have gotten a bit higher at one point in slow traffic, but I don’t recall fully.
Wind noise has been greatly reduced. Car is quieter for sure, and very enjoyable to travel in.
High speed stability is great! The car felt planted and very controllable at 170-200 km/h.
but…
The actual mileage wasn’t very good. Hm. Whereas before I was pushing towards 800km per tank, this time I could barely break 600km. Crappy!
There was black ice and heavy rain on the way out, but it did warm up. However, it was plagued with heavy winds. I noticed the worst gas mileage at this portion of the trip. After reaching my destination, the mileage was pretty good. When leaving, it was a bit worse yet again.
Temperatures varied from -14 to 6 degrees celsius, and wind speed varied from 5-35 km/h. I drove 100 km/h the whole way with very little deviation or any stops.
Is the lack of a good mileage a result of the elements or a failure in my prototype design? Have to see.
Hm..