Aero license plate cover
 

Hey, has anybody ever seen one of these before?

Highway Glider - Home Page

http://www.highwayglider.com/o/snv10743f.png

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0fZiOEFrfg

It's an aerodynamic cover to go over your license plate.

I don't know how big of a difference they make or not, but at least they make people think about aerodynamics.

They are pretty cheap, and you can get custom messages put on them. (Ecomodder.com, anyone?)

I got one of these given to me by the Milwaukee Hybrid group. I did notice that it doesn't fit on the back of the Metro or Sunfire, because of how the plate is recessed on the bumper. Maybe I will put it on the front of Kristin's Sunfire.

My first impression is that it would make a MINIMAL difference. Might look pretty cool on a Prius though.

Anyways, I will play with it when I get a chance and report back here.

Minimal. Definitely won't be detectable at the gas pump.

It could even make things WORSE if the plate location isn't smack in the middle of the stagnation point. In that case you'd have flow coming at that thing from above or below, not head on, making a bit of a mess.

But you're right: it'll get people thinking! Thinking... "if he hits a pedestrian with that thing, will it shatter or chop his leg off at the shin?" :P

Yeah, I wonder if it does anything at all. Would make parallel parking a pain in the arse though.

Their guarantee page is very interesting - Highway Glider - Guarantee Statement

I thought about the legality of it at first, because I'm pretty sure that it's illegal (at least here in New York) to have any plastic cover over the license plate, but they say that they'll pay your ticket if you get one.

And also:

Now that sounds like a challenge....

I think the clear covers that bulge out slightly would be the ideal solution. They are close to the beginning of a teardrop shape, and the smoothness is better than the uneven stamped letters on the plate.

You're right, that #4 DOES sound like a challenge.

Might be interesting to get a couple Ecomodders to test this thing out.

I think we would need a Scangauge, smooth road, and a windless day.

McTimson - great find!

That would be relatively easy to do, too. Somehow, I doubt you'd ever see the money if you showed a less than 2.5% difference.

PS - welcome to the site.

It's good to get people thinking about aero, but I can see parallel parking or tight parking garages rendering it shattered into a million pieces.

Plus, I agree -- the effect may be minimal.

My spider-sense is telling me that isn't legal, especially in California.

On top of #4, EcoModder will send a shirt to whoever can prove (to their standards) that it doesn't hit 2.5%.

Sure, a shirt isn't much on top of $1000, but I don't own a sedan and I really wanna see some hardcore ecomodder debunking. :thumbup:

Has to be quality-controlled A-B-A testing though, in ideal testing circumstances! (Goes without saying...)

I'm betting a shirt is all they're going to see anyway, so they'd be coming out ahead with it. :)

We'll set the EM lawyers out on these people if they don't cough up the big monies.

Let's not forget this though:

OK, how did I miss that 75mph caveat? I'm sorry but I don't drive that fast anymore... yikes! Do people really try and save gas going that fast? Wouldn't I save 2.5% gas consumption just dropping my speed down to LEGAL HIGHWAY LIMITS like 55 or 65mph? Heck, I think the CHP actually give out tickets for 75mph on bad days.

Think of it this way; people (scammers) are bringing things to market that at least could work rather than flat out don't work.

Darn, Olivia doesn't have a front license plate mount. Otherwise, that $1000 would be mine! :D Yeah, I know: excuses, excuses!

Debunking on a test would be fun: first you'd have the ticket for having that cover ( which they claim they will pay ), then there's the ticket for doing 75 which here in Jersey would be 20mph over the limit in most areas which is mandatory points and big fines ( which they don't claim they will pay ). So that $1,000 might pay for some wind-tunnel time maybe.

Well I just ordered one. Do you want to send me the shirt now or just wait for me to post the results? I doubt that it is going to increase my mpg by 2.5%, but for ~$12 with shipping maybe I can at least cut it up and make a grill block out of it. Although 2.5% isn't much I think it will be well worth the money if it does show that improvement, I'll get the 2.5% with it some way though.

Can you get your money back before they ship it ?

I'd bet you could improve your aero more by farting out the window.


( Please .... prove me wrong ! )

What I like is that promoting it gets people thinking about aero.

But I suspect the design won't help. It's a no-brainer that you'd save more by driving 65 instead of 75 and leave the license plate cover off the car. 60, even better.

To go on the front of the car I say it should be a rounded bulge just like most modern cars noses.

For the back, maybe tapering to a point but I don't think it should be concave like the photo shows. However for the back, I kinda think it might have to match the width/height of the car's rear face to really do much. Much bigger than a license plate cover.

Well I'm not going to get my money back, $12 is worth it if I can get a shirt out of it. And like I said before, at least I can cut it up and use it as a grill block. I doubt that it's going to help at all, but I'll get an increase if I use it as a grill block, so either way.

I like how they use some young chick to install it, it plays to the sex sells idea and it sells to those who aren't as mechanically inclined to believe that they also can do this "modification". Nice work for such a lame product!

Highway Glider
 

Is "I Love My Dog" License Plate legal?

Does it ever occur to you guys, what if these people are trying to do something that we usually do not think about?

When was the last time you purchased a auto-part product that was made in America?

Does anybody have any idea to increase the fuel efficiency of a car with changing driving behavior - even if it is only 0.0001%?

It is so easy to be negative, but did you know that Auto manufacturers simply do not care about Aerodynamics that much.

There are 60+ ideas to increase fuel efficiency without changing driving behavior...

Sure, they're trying to do something different, that's fine, but their claims are a little too much for what their product actually does.

It's true, I don't spend too much time trying to come up with new scams.

Garbage is garbage, no matter where it's made.

If you are satisfied with a .0001% increase... air up your tires.

Automakers don't care about aero... yet they're the ones with the multi-million dollar aero research facilities. They've forgotten more about aero than most of us will ever know.

re front lic plate
 

I was trying to respond to a old thread about light 87 crx hf weld wheels
and lost my pass word and had to wait and found this thread on this soon to be broken plexi cover my 91 crx hf I simply crimped top of plate 1/8" in vice at about 60 deg and roled the plate and cuped it out tword the front and butterfly ed the lower center and lower corners so as to make for less frontal area but not to exceed the 15 degrees of stall ( in flight school they said over 15 degrees of raise or drop in wing surface(look up cd on dc 3) starts seperation burbles and stall turbulance so I think that this much angle will cause a burbulation under and over the car (hurting the aero)

the milage increase will (in this case be like a sugar pill) the new owner of this soon to be cracked plastic will be thinking eco so he/she will develop a 2.5 percent beter way to drive regardles of the efecttive/uneffective product added.?/?:turtle: