3rd gen Prius aeromod thread

[Vman455]

Originally Posted by Daox

Woohoo. Glad to hear you got it finished up.

Do you have plans to test its effectiveness?

I'm planning on getting a drag coefficient from coast down testing later this spring (if the weather ever turns decent around here...). For now, this trip to New York/New Jersey should give me an indication it's working or not.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by Vman455

I ended up painting it with bedliner. Black+thick covers a multitude of sins; this stuff is UV resistant, abrasion resistant, and impact resistant, so it should hold up well.

The epoxy resin with graphite would have been lighter but not as abrasion resistant I suspect. It would have been very glossy/slippery and not matte finish. I think it would show the flaws a little more as well as being difficult to get a grip on while installing or removing it. I only did a spinner cone, nothing as large as your tail section.

Looks good, but I didn't expect to see the air gap. Guess I wasn't following this as closely as I had thought.

[Vman455]

Originally Posted by kach22i

The epoxy resin with graphite would have been lighter but not as abrasion resistant I suspect. It would have been very glossy/slippery and not matte finish. I think it would show the flaws a little more as well as being difficult to get a grip on while installing or removing it. I only did a spinner cone, nothing as large as your tail section.

Looks good, but I didn't expect to see the air gap. Guess I wasn't following this as closely as I had thought.

It's still fairly light--I can easily pick it up myself. However, I'm not planning on removing it from the car unless it falls apart (cross your fingers!) or until I build a better version.

I've actually added some bracing now on the sides, to which I'm also going to attach some aluminum paneling to cover the gap. After that, I think I'll make an aluminum spoiler extension to cover the top gap; I need to be able to reach in to open the hatch, so I can't cover it fully. That was one of my stipulations for this project: maintain hatch accessibility. This would have been a lot easier designing the car from scratch to be streamlined!

[COcyclist]

Nice work! I would love to see a video from a chase car of some white tufts on that black box. It could be very revealing. It would be great to see a before and after if you add gap fillers.

[freebeard]

It would be great to see a before and after if you add gap fillers.

How can you add gap fillers without compromising the visibility of the [stock] tail lights? Consider a combination of wake boards (upper left) and vortex traps (lower right).

[pugmanic]

Originally Posted by Vman455

Some other details. Rear wheel fairings:



Front wheel air dams:

Really really nice work, on all of it! Do you have any more details on the rear wheel dams? From what I can tell, they are shaped, rather than just flat dams as on the front wheels. Had you thought about shaped dams on the front?

[Vman455]

Originally Posted by pugmanic

Really really nice work, on all of it! Do you have any more details on the rear wheel dams? From what I can tell, they are shaped, rather than just flat dams as on the front wheels. Had you thought about shaped dams on the front?

Yeah, those are actually the rear wheel fairings from the 2014- Ford C-Max hybrid. Ford makes fairings for the front as well, and so does BMW on the 3- and 4-series and Porsche on the 911, that could be retrofitted; I just haven't gotten around to it.

C-Max:


3-series:


911:

[mpg_numbers_guy]

What is covering the air valve access hole in each of your wheel covers?

[pugmanic]

Originally Posted by Vman455

Yeah, those are actually the rear wheel fairings from the 2014- Ford C-Max hybrid. Ford makes fairings for the front as well, and so does BMW on the 3- and 4-series and Porsche on the 911, that could be retrofitted; I just haven't gotten around to it.

I don't understand why the fairings aren't wider. They don't seem to cover the width of the tyres... presumably there is a reason for this.

[Vman455]

Originally Posted by mpg_numbers_guy

What is covering the air valve access hole in each of your wheel covers?

2" rubber hole plugs.

Originally Posted by pugmanic

I don't understand why the fairings aren't wider. They don't seem to cover the width of the tyres... presumably there is a reason for this.

Keep in mind that the flow under the car is in yaw; the tire isn't "seeing" airflow from head on, but from an angle. Also the reason simple air dams now are trending toward curved designs that partially wrap around the inside face of the wheel.

Old style (Toyota Corolla, released 2014):


New style (Toyota Prius, released 2016):