Nissan Versa Base 1.6

[skyl4rk]

So far the highest I have seen is 207F briefly. It has not been above 75F ambient though.

[skyl4rk]

Replaced the zipties and turned them around so the tabs are on the inside. Couple hours job.

Next, reinstall on car and try to fair it to the car's body.

Getting close to long term installation.

[skyl4rk]

2009-05-02

odometer: 2537
trip: 504.3 mi.
fillup: 11.3 US gal
price: $2.109
calculated mpg: 44.63 US

Scangauge Tank Readout
505 miles
71 miles tank to empy
15.9 hrs tank
2.2 hrs tank to empty
31 mph avg
$22.50 cost
44.4 mpg
11.3 gallons
1.6 gallons tank to empty

This includes a lot of hypermiling, EOC, generally 30-50mph, some 20-40mph.

There were about 100 highway miles at 70mph.

Less than 10% of these miles were with the tail. The tail has now been installed on a long term basis, so the next tank will reflect the wingtail.

[skyl4rk]

[suchy21]

Hey skyl4rk, I like your ambition with the Versa tail addition, and would like to see the long-term numbers on it. One area of concern is across the rear wheels. The downward slope of the skirt can have the tendency to scoop air. This depends on the state of flow once it reaches that feature, but it is something that we look at a lot with solar car wheel fairing design. The Aptera's wheel fairings can serve as a good reference, noticing the upward curve from the leading to the trailing edge.

[Impulse]

WOW! That is very impressive, great job!!!

[skyl4rk]

Originally Posted by suchy21

Hey skyl4rk, I like your ambition with the Versa tail addition, and would like to see the long-term numbers on it. One area of concern is across the rear wheels. The downward slope of the skirt can have the tendency to scoop air.

Yes that is unfortunate and I don't really know why that side turned out like that. I think the other side is better. I don't recall how that happened. It would have been much better if it started at the bottom of the door and went straight across. The tail was kind of trimmed to fit then stitched together, and it involved some pushing and shoving to get it to jam fit tightly. So it was not really precision work.

I hope to have time to do some driving soon. I think I have about 30 miles on this tank of gas with the tail and the avg mpg is over 50, however that was some slow EOC driving, a lot of 20-40mph EOC. I walk or bike to work so I don't drive much, plus I work too much. But its a nice day for a drive, I may sneak out early.

I think the tail will be most helpful at highway speeds. However, I rarely choose to drive on the highway, and prefer no traffic country roads where I can play my EOC game in the hills. Maybe there will be some benefit at low speeds as well.

I still have some mods to do, a dipstick heater is in the future to help with short trip mpg, as well as some synthetic oil when I get to my second oil change. I still have not folded back the side mirrors, they are fairly aero when folded back, I just need to mount a small convex mirror somewhere to replace the big mirrors. Unfortunately the tail blocks the mounting point that I wanted to use for rear wheel rear fairings, I will have to figure something else out. I think the most effective mod for me (after the tail) will be to go to 15" wheels and large circumference tires to increase my gearing a bit.

[skyl4rk]

OK, I did a test run and hypermiled my best EOC technique, also did a coastdown test to compare with base values.

Coastdown test, multiple runs in each direction
February was without blocks and tail.
May is with blocks and tail.

Feb 25, 2009 - May 5, 2009
10.0 - 15.6 seconds 60mph to 50mph, 156%
13.0 - 19.0 seconds 50mph to 40mph, 146%
18.0 - 26 seconds 40mph to 30mph, 144%
21.0 - 36.2 seconds 30mph to 20mph, 172%

Scangauge Report
May 5, 2009 Trip
$2.42 Cost
29 mph avg
63 mph max
2.3 hours
3250 rpm max
68.5 miles
197 F water temp
1.15 gallons
59.2 mpg

This was a lot of work and careful careful accelleration followed by long coasts. It is going to be tough to match this, there were some long drawn out coasts to work my way up to 59 mpg. However, with additional mods, I am certain I can beat 60 mpg. I might have gotten 60mpg this time if I had stayed out for another hour and ran some more country roads.

103% over EPA, if I calculated that right.

[skyl4rk]

[dr. locktopus]

wow! nice work!