improvements driving a Hyundai I30

[Thenorm]

I've been working long term in australia, and my rental car is an I30 (elantra for you yankees)
normally i drive quite agressivly, as my car at home has been souped up for racing, but here, since Im just commuting I've been driving easy.

when i picked up the car the avg mpg guage from previous drivers read 8.5 L/100km (27mpg)
some gentle driving had me averaging 7.1 L/100km (33mpg)
now, after I've adopted some new techniques (neutral coasting, trying to accel at min BSFC) I've dropped it further to 6.6 l/100k (35mpg)

heres the templat of the I30. its pretty good at 25% of template

[picasso1387]

Nice job with the driving techniques. How about trying some temporary aero mods? (and try not to violate the rental agreement) Might be a fun challenge.

[MetroMPG]

Nice improvement over the previous drivers.

Gives you something fun to do on the commute!

[Thenorm]

Originally Posted by picasso1387

Nice job with the driving techniques. How about trying some temporary aero mods? (and try not to violate the rental agreement) Might be a fun challenge.

i thought about that. but I was too late when started lurking on this site.
I've already done most of the road trips I've planned, most of my mileage is behind me, and I only have 1 month left.

[Thenorm]

so, I've got a 1000 mile road trip coming up, so i got the tape out.


the upper grill hardly had any air holes in it anyways, but i smoothed it out. The radiator fan and air intake are on the right side of hte picture where i left the lower grill block open.
I plan to tape the hubcaps up to make crude wheel covers, and I may tape some cardboard wheels skirts and or basic Kamm back on.

with the grill block and steady improving my driving and stopped buying E10, my milage is now up to 39mpg.

[MetroMPG]

You must be close to the end of your stay.

Please post pics of your tape/cardboard mods & good luck on the trip!

[Thenorm]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

You must be close to the end of your stay.

Please post pics of your tape/cardboard mods & good luck on the trip!

ya, only 6 more days till I fly home.

so, with these mod I was able to get approximately 39mpg at 65mph according to the in dash computor. On the way home from the trip, i was shorter on time and so I drove closer to 75-80mph and was getting about 33mpg. I had moderate cross winds for most of these miles.

I know its all comparing apples to oranges, but my gut feel is that my 10% improvement estimate was true.

the skirts were rock solid. i think they only deflected in bad cross winds. The kamm was good for 400 miles, before i had to make some minor repairs to keep it from lifting away.


i even made a cutout for the 3rd brake light. Although the tape did rip after a few 100 miles, i had to redo it.

[MetroMPG]

Nice going - I dig the look of that roof extension.