2014 Mirage aeromods A-B test: grille block, mini-Kammback, air dam, mirrors, 1 wiper
 

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1402343053

To get ready for the 2014 SMCC Economy Run event in Montreal, I put together some coroplast mods for the 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage 5-speed I borrowed.

(See also: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...cyl-29176.html )

I ran out of time to do a couple more mods that I would have liked: cowl fairing; rear wheel skirts; taped over the holes in the wheelcovers.


Pretty good factory "mods" ...

Mitsu hasn't left as much low-hanging fruit on this entry level car as other companies do on theirs. The Cd. is 0.28 in North America, and comes with multiple factory aero elements like:

- drag-reducing spoiler/roof extension
- partial lower grille block off (and the size of blocked area is different for CVT vs manual)
- relatively smooth wheel covers (base model)
- narrow section LRR tires (165 mm)
- "optimized" rocker panel design
- sharp trailing edge/corner on the rear bumper cover
- plastic underbody panels
- front wheel/suspension deflectors

Here's what I added to that...

1) Grille blocks

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1402348280

This mod is less extensive than it looks, because Mitsu already blocked out about half of the "apparent" lower grille openings in the Mirage. I closed the upper slot plus a bit more than half of the lower openings.

2) Fog light inserts

Probably no real effect from covering these, but they looked lumpy and I had the plastic & tape out already, and so why not.

3) Air dam

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1402348956

Added a ~3 inch dam as far forward as I could, wrapping smoothly back to the front wheel arch on the sides. It left about 3.5 inches of clearance (and it scraped 3 or 4 times during the drive).

This mod is hard to do when you can't drill your borrowed car! Lots of tape (and later Goo-gone) used!

3) Passenger side mirror delete, driver's folded back

Replaced with a small (approx 2.5 x 3 inch convex mirror); folded the driver's mirror back and taped a convex mirror on its trailing end.

4) Passenger wiper delete

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1402365475

It parks unusually high and at an odd angle on this car (and on the Micra too, I noticed). Although it might also be angled so the local flow goes more from end than face-on. A quick tuft test would answer that.

5) Kammback/spoiler extension

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1402348547

This adds about 10 inches more to the roofline and up to 15 inches on the sides, and includes a notch to show the LED center brake light.

Testing...

I used my usual flat, straight 1.6 km test route. Conditions were perfect: 25C and dry, no wind at all. There was never any traffic ahead of me in my lane, but sometimes oncoming traffic went past on the other side.

I would have liked to do A-B-A, but didn't have time. Also, this car doesn't have cruise control, so I had to use laser focus on that speedometer needle. It's pretty easy to hold this car at a dead steady speed, but it did wander half a km/h or so up or down. So take all this with an appropriately sized grain of salt!

I did A-B-C, where...

- A was all mods in place;
- B was all mods in place except the air dam;
- C was all mods removed


Results ...

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1403278089

I removed the air dam separately because I was most curious about it. It was pretty much a given that all the other mods would help or have little effect, but the air dam had the potential to actually make things worse, and I wanted to check that.

The fuel economy improvement between unmodified (C) to modified (A) was 4.5 % @ 90 km/h / 56 mph based on these numbers.

A1 - 57.15 mpg US (average of 2-way run)
A2 - 56.8
B1 - 56.1
B2 - 56.15
C1 - 53.7
C2 - 55.0
C3 - 54.8

No additional "A" run?

No cruise control?

BIG GRAIN OF SALT INDEED :D

GIANT GRAIN of salt!

Do you have any more photos? I'm curious to see how you secured a mirror to the back of the folded down driver's side mirror.

It looks like the mirror is attached with a liberal amount of duct tape :)

Canadians don't need no stinking SALT, they're the PEPPER-of-the earth kind'o people (wink,wink)!

Cool

You are correct, sir!

For the passenger side, I made a coroplast baseplate shape to fit where the mirror base was, and created a coroplast "pod" to which I attached the convex mirror. Of course, all held together and attached with liberal amounts of duct tape. :)

Proof!

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1402365123

VERY SWEET!!!!

THe black gives it just enough contrast to be called a 'sports' model.