My Green Skoda Fabia (VW Polo) R3 CRTDI - finally smashed the 3L / 80MPG barrier

[California98Civic]

Beautiful car. Love the rims. Color. Lowering moderately almost always improves a car's looks, I think.

[jimhs]

Nice,
really interesting project,
looking forward for the mpg results with the lower springs

[GreenTDI]

Originally Posted by California98Civic

Beautiful car. Love the rims. Color. Lowering moderately almost always improves a car's looks, I think.

Thanks! These models are way too high standard. The springs are long and weak: they sag enormously with a load. Now the car is at the right height and they are firm with any load.

The thing now drives like a kart by the way. With these light, narrow wheels and the lowering. It almost becomes tempting to have a bit more power ...

[GreenTDI]

Originally Posted by jimhs

Nice,
really interesting project,
looking forward for the mpg results with the lower springs

Me too because it's mainly used as a highway cruiser = should give less drag at highway speed. Due to circumstances I drive less now, but I will certainly update new results!

[ptitviet]

Originally Posted by GreenTDI

Thanks! These models are way too high standard. The springs are long and weak: they sag enormously with a load. Now the car is at the right height and they are firm with any load.

The thing now drives like a kart by the way. With these light, narrow wheels and the lowering. It almost becomes tempting to have a bit more power ...

Wow I didn't look at your lowering that looks awesome. New firm springs should also help by making you able to keep more momentum in curves...

My Greenline already has a "sport" chassis option, which lowers the ride height by about 15mm. 140mm is a good compromise and I as live in the mountain I will not lower more.

The new wheel alignment should certainly also help a lot with reducing consumption. I am very curious to see your figures.

Did you think about making a coasting test to get updated SCd and Crr values? I would be happy to compute your values please tell me if you are interested.

[GreenTDI]

Yes it's a good compromise. My car didn't have the factory sport chassis, so I'm happy that I did it. Besides, the taller tires did rise the car for another cm, so it was just necessary, period. Handling (at speed) in curves improved a lot, but on the other hand I have to slow down more for bumps ...

Originally Posted by ptitviet

Did you think about making a coasting test to get updated SCd and Crr values? I would be happy to compute your values please tell me if you are interested.

That's a good idea, thanks for proposing!
I'm using fall and winter to make some more adjustments, the real comparison consumption (and coasting) tests can continue when the weather improves ... Due to the persistent wind, rain and cold I'm now at 4.1l/100 km where I got 2.9l a month ago ...

[ptitviet]

Great! Tell me when you want to do it I will give you my method that I think more accurate than most of the other used.

[GreenTDI]

The engine will be chiptuned next week. It's not a standard chip that will be downloaded in the ECU, but it will be written to my car and my wishes. I am not looking for peak values, but for a torque and power curve that is as flat and smooth as possible. The estimated result is ~100 hp at 3500 rpm and continuously 200 Nm (150 lb-ft) between 1800 and 3000 rpm.

That's not much considering these engines are being tuned to 110 hp and 250 Nm (184 lb-ft) peak power. But see it as eco-tuning. Smoothness is key here.

[Leinaad]

Nice, I´m looking forward for your reports on fe after that.
There is a tuner called skn who offers eco tuning, maybe I´ll do that when my warranty is over.

[GreenTDI]

I will update any progress (or decline) in FE. What is certain is that it will drive a lot better. It will be done by a VAG specialist, called VAGtechniek. They only work on TDI's and have a good reputation.

I guess a stock 2.0 TDI is already very nice to drive