[notahybrid]

Ok, I'm kinda new to this forum. I bounce around different sites and forums, and happened to find this one. It seems with the price of gas, everyone is looking for new or old solutions. Anyway, I'm an avid hot rodder and racing enthusiast so I guess most of you would be wondering what I'm doing here. Well, I picked up an '89 Festiva awhile back to replace my current daily driver. At a rated 55mpg, it hasn't done too bad since I'm realistically getting lower than that. The Festiva has alot of strong points and weak ones. The strong: It's cheap, easy to maintain, reliable, manueverable in tight spaces, is so light I can pick up the back end with my bare hands, and is fuel efficient. The weak: It's loud, simple on comfort and styling, sluggish, and has poor handling. I've been addressing many of the safety issues and other mechanical short comings, but all in all, she still beats the fuel economy of a new Prius, not bad for a 20 year old antique, kinda makes me wonder what's holding the auto industry back from the easily produced ecoboxes they were able to make 20-30 years ago. Anyway, I would like to see what kind of figures I could get if I exhausted every possible avenue. I am currently cutting weight and reducing mechanical friction wherever possible. I have equipped the car with ram-air and am also running the car off of alky/water injection which has helped greatly. I may also experiment with a homemade HHO booster to further help keep fuel in the tank. In the long run, I think it would be interesting to experiment with turning it into an extended range vehicle like the Volt, but with cash restraints, I just want to see how far I can get with the ICE directly powering the wheels. Obviously, aerodynamics plays a major factor which is why I want to know if there is anyone here who has aerodynamically improved a Festy. I have basic ideas: belly pan, rear diffuser/spoilers, fender skirts, and nose cone. A more expensive mod would be to chop the top a couple inches. Doubt I'll do that. The nose cone is a particular interest of mine. I believe I could gain alot by following the example set by Superbirds and Firebirds/TransAms. Those cars experienced significant gains with thier nose pieces, especially the Superbird. The improved aerodynamics over the base Roadrunner makes the Superbird one of the most slippery production cars of all time and is the reason it took the 1970 NASCAR season by storm. It also makes it rare due to what was then considered ugly. I really don't care much about looks, just the most efficient way to get the job done.