ABA Testing Pizza Pan Wheel Covers
 

After performing tuft testing on my Vibe, I realized that I needed to perform some ABA tests to verify any actual benefit. Test done as follows:
Three mile runs on a flat, straight road, each at 55 mph. Started testing at 10:45 AM and finished at 12:30 PM.
First set of runs performed with covers installed;

A1: 48.1 mpg
A2: 56.1
A3: 48.7
A4: 56.6
A5: 48.0
A6: 56.4

Runs A1, A3, and A5 were south bound.
Runs A2, A4, and A6 were north bound.
Next set of runs performed with front wheel covers removed;

B1: 46.3 mpg
B2: 54.6
B3: 47.7
B4: 53.0

Runs B1 and B3 were south bound, B2 and B4 northbound.
I reinstalled the front wheel covers and did five more runs;

A7: 49.0 mpg
A8: 56.1
A9: 48.6
A10: 57.6
A11: 48.0

By the time I got this far, the temperature had climbed two degrees and the wind had picked up to the point that I could see the leaves on trees wobbling. It was out of the south, so I think that may be why my north bound runs were higher. It's the flattest stretch of road I can find, but there may be a slight elevation change over the three miles, I don't really know.

I averaged the north bound "A" runs, and got 56.56 mpg.
I averaged the south bound "A" runs, and got 48.4 mpg.

The north bound "B" runs averaged 53.8 mpg.
The south bound "B" runs averaged 47.0 mpg.

That's a 1.4 mpg difference between the south bound "A" and "B" runs, and a 2.76 mpg difference between the north bound "A" and "B" runs!

Conclusions;
-ABA testing takes a lot of freaking time.
-I need to clean the brake dust out of my covers more often.
-Doing the ABA testing at night (like suggested on this site...) would provide a longer 'window' of calm winds and stable temps.
-The pizza pans WORK!

Great results, Charlie! I'm planning on making some pizza pans for the Peugeot, they're the only mod that my father hasn't banned :(

They have used wheel covers for years on the salt . They do it for more than keeping salt off the wheels.Good job with the testing.

A side story. They where first made from aluminum discs guys found in dumpsters behind record company's like Deca and RCA. Turns out these Master recordings of Elvis and Buddy Holly would be worth a lot of money to collectors today.