96 Saturn SL1

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by tru

did you take nay pictures detailing the diffuser?

And how did you judge the angle of the diffuser? I think 4-5 degrees is considered optimal.

[96SATSL]

After I closed off the bottom of the car. The rear end was roughly 5-6 degrees of angle. I spoke with my aero engineer, he suggested 6 is optimum. Range from (4-6) I overlayed a stock image of the saturn in sideview and it is roughly 6*. From there I used my under belly pan as a guide; as it was in the propper range.



-Alex

I did not take any photos, cause it was pretty quick to build. The same method was used, which a member used to make one for his Mini Cooper S I believe.

[tru]

did you reinforce it like the mini cooper? how did you attach the strakes to the base?

[Nevyn]

How did you attach the belly pan to the car?

[Cd]

I'm not sure if I overlooked it or not, but what do you plan to do with the rear of the car besides a decklid spoiler ?
I remember you had the comment about wanting the car to look OEM, but i notice you seem to have changed your mind with the non OEM looking pizza pan covers.
What was wrong with the clear ones ?


My mother has this same car. It seems to have a pretty clean underside, but even though modern cars rarely need their gaps filled, I cringe every time i see her car and the huge gaps around the hood. Clever use of the foam insulation tape !
I did a sloppy tuft test of the rear glass on her car, and as i suspected, its a total mess back there.
What about a small roof mounted trip at the corner of the roof for your car ?

[cfg83]

96SATSL -

Just in case you were interested in a spoiler that "meets the template" :



When I look at the template and I look at sedans, I always think of this non-OEM spoiler :



CarloSW2

[96SATSL]

Originally Posted by tru

did you reinforce it like the mini cooper? how did you attach the strakes to the base?

Strakes are attached with exopy.

[96SATSL]

Originally Posted by Nevyn

How did you attach the belly pan to the car?

The belly pan is attached to allum L channel bars which I mounted on the rear and where ever neccesary towards the front. I also tried to use exicting wholes for the majority of the attachments.

[96SATSL]

Originally Posted by Cd

I'm not sure if I overlooked it or not, but what do you plan to do with the rear of the car besides a decklid spoiler ?
I remember you had the comment about wanting the car to look OEM, but i notice you seem to have changed your mind with the non OEM looking pizza pan covers.
What was wrong with the clear ones ?


My mother has this same car. It seems to have a pretty clean underside, but even though modern cars rarely need their gaps filled, I cringe every time i see her car and the huge gaps around the hood. Clever use of the foam insulation tape !
I did a sloppy tuft test of the rear glass on her car, and as i suspected, its a total mess back there.
What about a small roof mounted trip at the corner of the roof for your car ?

I did the clear and pizza pan versions, but I decided to take them off as I did not know the actual impact they had on MPG. For the last two days I did not notice a drop once they were removed, so I assume the stock hubcaps arent too bad as they are. I think I'm gonna ditch the wheel covers for now. As far as OEM they were the only thing that looks different. Now they are off with no negative impact to total MPG.

What do you mean about roof trip?

[Cd]

Originally Posted by 96SATSL

I did the clear and pizza pan versions, but I decided to take them off as I did not know the actual impact they had on MPG. For the last two days I did not notice a drop once they were removed, so I assume the stock hubcaps arent too bad as they are. I think I'm gonna ditch the wheel covers for now. As far as OEM they were the only thing that looks different. Now they are off with no negative impact to total MPG.

What do you mean about roof trip?

I suspected that you wouldn't see much of any improvement with the wheel covers, but kept that to myself.

By roof trip, I meant a sort of shelf spoiler that would be mounted at the edge of the roofline just above the glass. It would separate the wake more cleanly than having a sudden curve at the rear. The Audi A2 has one at the end of its' roofline. Imagine something similar added at the junction of the roof and rear glass.



Since your roofline is quite short, I'm guessing that you may not see much of an improvement. What you really want is to extend the roofline out along the template cure as far as you can and create a Kammback.

I just mentioned the trip because you wanted to keep the car looking semi stock.

I'll let the experts take over now.