I see there is quite a few new beetle owners on here, I had mine for just over 3 years and average above 48 MPG over 64,000 miles, mostly highway at 75 mph
Any of you guys do a lot of changes to your beetle? Belly pan, etc?
I'm not in your target population. The closest I have is a 1979 Dasher [NA] diesel. However... It was a personal victory when I made a counterintuitive suggestion and was proven right.
He describes his modification at Permalink #5 and gives the result I predicted at Permalink #15
Quote:
FreeBeard was right...what would we do if the MPG goes up!?!?
Thanks FreeBeard! I just returned home from a 770 mile round trip to Portland, lake Oswego and home! I returned home late last night and checked the hard mileage and found 770 miles, 15.6 gallons netted 49.3MPG! So as Freebeard suggested, what will we do if the mileage goes up?!?
Beetle w/o any attachments/slick top= ave 48mpg :{)
Beetle with factory VW Roof racks and CVT tent= 38mpg :/
Beetle with new areo-hitch mounted rack/CVT tent= 49.3MPG WhoooRah!
That is a gain of 11.3 mpg boys and girls!
I tolerate him capitalizing my handle when he gets results like that. So even an empty cargo pod on a hitch mount could lower the Cd.
__________________
.
.Without freedom of speech we wouldn't know who all the idiots are. -- anonymous poster
____________________
.
.Three conspiracy theorists walk into a bar --You can't say that is a coincidence.
Wings don't help the fenders. Here's EDAG's effort:
They're a German design school that does one concept a year.
__________________
.
.Without freedom of speech we wouldn't know who all the idiots are. -- anonymous poster
____________________
.
.Three conspiracy theorists walk into a bar --You can't say that is a coincidence.
As freebeard has suggested, the drag at the back of the Beetle is terrible. The curved roof creates strong counter-rotating vortexes leading to high drag. The wing may help disrupt those vortexes and allow the air to come together more smoothly at the rear of the car.
The power needed to push an object through a fluid increases as the cube of the velocity. Mechanical friction increases as the square, so increasing speed requires progressively more power.