Rear Skirt Length - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

walke2jd · 08-04-2009, 04:44 PM

Has anyone done any testing on whether it is benefitial to build a rear skirt out from the car in order to make it lower to the ground?

My saturn's body slopes inward and intersects the wheels about half way down, so should I just stop the skirt there or try to fashion a skirt that shaped outward from the body in order to make the skirt lower?

I know Ive read a couple of posts that mention the idea, but I have yet to see anything concrete. I know that it will depend on the car and other factors, but does anyone have a guestimate on which would be better?

Thanks,
Jason

basjoos · 08-04-2009, 05:40 PM

I initially started with a top half rear wheel well skirt, then extended it to full length. Extending the skirt added an additional 1 mpg on top of the 1mpg improvement from the half height skirt. The slight increase in frontal area is counteracted by the decrease in aero drag from the increased coverage of the wheel well opening and shutting down the huge amount of air that comes boiling out of it (easily visualized by the water spray pattern when driving down a wet road)

cfg83 · 08-04-2009, 06:40 PM

walke2jd -

One member, lovemysan, has done fantastic aeromods to his SL :

saturn pictures by lovemysan - Photobucket

I know I'm not answering your question, but it's the same car, so you can "see" how he did is rear skirt.

CarloSW2