2011 hyundai accent aero mods (looking for some advice)

[johnathanf1lm]

Okay so ecomodding my accent has gotten down to weight and aero basically. So i am looking for some aero oppions. My accent is a 2011 hatchback gl with some mods already done to it. I want to keep it as stock looking as possible since i love how the car looks. Heres what i have been looking at doing: thinking lowering it issue is only springs they sell is a 1.5in drop. Semi Grill block/ smooth out the front bumper groves around the grill issue with this i ho to make it look professional. And thats all i have come up with yet so far.

[Shortie771]

Have you looked into the 65+ Vehicle mods? There are a few things on there that can definitely help. Unless the car already needs new springs, I wouldn't suggest lowering it, because the return on investment is very low. I'm not sure if the 2011 Accent already has one or not, but a smooth underbelly is probably one of the biggest aero mods that you can do without changing the look of your car. You could do a grill block and paint it so it isn't noticable, at a minimum completely block the upper grill portion. You could relocate your antenna to the inside or get a smaller (stubby) one or a sharkfin.

That should get you started down the right path, but before messing with aero modifications I'd say work on the way you drive and get yourself a Scangauge/MPGuino and/or a vacuum gauge. Driving techniques and proper monitoring will improve your MPG vastly more than any other modification you can do.

Edit: Also start tracking your mileage, it actually does help. Plus it lets yourself (and us) know how you're progressing.

[johnathanf1lm]

Well no one ever masers driving technics but im pretty good in that department when i can. (I live in a valley so everything is hills with next to no straight flat roads. I also have alot of the lovely stop signs at the end of hills everywhere too. I agree with the lowering springs though due to potholes and pay off. But better handling is why its still on the board. It does come with a small belly pan (splash guard). Issue with full belly pan would be the exhaust is the lowest point under. The gl does and has on it a 2 inch air dam. so the added weight of the belly pan may offset the gains bc of the air dam. And lastly my grill is a seperate piece from the bumper and is cheap and black in color. The issue i have is how to modify it. My idea is to buy one and plastic weld panels on it and then drill out holes for air flow. Issue i can see with this is the bumper has like a slant all around it going into the grill to probly push more air in. so if i block the holes wont air be getting trapped at that point.

[Shortie771]

Ok let's see if I can break this up..

Lowering: I've Lowered my car and the better handling and slight improvement to aero are nice, but neither make a measurable difference. The reason I lowered mine was because mine had tired old springs and shocks from 1994 and we're becoming a safety issue. Anytime something breaks on my car I see it as an opportunity to upgrade, but if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Belly pan: it's nice that yours has a belly pan to start with, because it will give you something to build off of, if you decide to do a full underbelly. The weight of the underbelly is definitely worth it. I have seen some people make theirs out of coroplast, others have used thin gauge metal. If your know how to fiberglass you could even go that route. The exhaust shouldn't be an issue. It is a very small percentage of the underbelly so even if you covered everything but the exhaust, you would still be much better off. My plan it to use coroplast underneath connected to a section of aluminum flashing where the exhaust is. Should keep the coroplast from melting.

Grill: Not sure how your grill looks, I'm going off of images from Google. If the images I'm looking at are correct, you could completely block the upper grill with a sheet of coroplast from behind and paint it black. It would still look stock. I'm no aerodynamic whiz, bit I'll do my best... The "slant" around the bumper that forces air to the upper grill would do its job and fill that cavity with air. When the area is full, the air pressure in that spot will increase and force all new air over and around it, as if that cavity was solid and flush with the body.

This is the image I'm referring to

[Ecky]

As Shortie says, the added weight of the pan is negligible. I found that even with a thousand extra pounds in my car, my highway economy was not noticeably affected, and city economy was only affected when I wasn't paying attention. Weight removal is nearly worthless, so an extra 1-2lbs (tops) of corrugated plastic, which can yield double digit improvements on the highway, are worth their weight in gold.

[johnathanf1lm]

weight reduction also helps starting off on hills a bit (barely noticeable unless its 100 plus pounds. And since i have a manual rack it will help a hair. The picture of the red car is the 2012 model year some odd reason even when ordering parts some places mix the 2 up.

[Shortie771]

Originally Posted by johnathanf1lm

The picture of the red car is the 2012 model year some odd reason even when ordering parts some places mix the 2 up.

Ok, I think I found the right one now. Either way the info I gave before is still accurate. The same info applies to the majority of upper grill areas. Block the upper portion from behind with coroplast and paint it black. Even if you don't ever block the lower section, you'll still get faster warm ups (better city mpg) and better aero for the highway. I'm about to do the same thing to my wife's 2012 Civic. She'll never know