Quote:
Originally Posted by krousdb
Have you quantified any FE gain with these?
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Hi Krousdb,
Do not know and have not tried to evaluate the hub caps yet either. I did them at the start of the winter, and good conditions really have not existed yet for testing. Coming up with a method to see as small a difference as I expect will be difficult as well. One of the reasons I made them out of about the lightests metal that might work is to avoid the effects of rotational momentum and extra unsprung weight.
The secondary reason for doing the hub caps is the rust spots on the brake disks when they were warm, and the snow would blow in and melt on the disks. As you know the Prius does like 85 % of its braking electrically, and so the friction brakes do not get hot enough to evaporate out the surface moisture on many trips. So, this seemed a good way to keep the surface moisture down. Which the flat hub caps do help with.