Dam, It works! (Air dam on Smart Fortwo: 3-4% MPG improvement)

[chumly]

I just made an air dam out of some lawn edging. A B A testing shows 3.16%-4.2 % (avg 3.73%) better mileage. It took a whole half hour to make and install it, I should have done this a long time ago! Chumly

[wmjinman]

Good job!

[MetroMPG]

Thanks for posting!

What speed did you test at?

Do you have a picture showing the whole front of the car?

[UltArc]

I was anticipating test results and procedures...please?

[chumly]

I drove the car about 20 miles before any testing so it was completely warmed up. A is with the dam and B is without. I reset the scangage at a set point after getting up to speed and set the cruise control at 60 to be consistent, drove 5 miles one way, turned around in a parking lot and returned to set point on all three runs. Temps were the same on all three runs with a stop of maybe 5 min. between runs to take off dam and to reinstall it. On the last run I actually had to pass a car but I didn't need to touch the throttle, I don't think it should have made much difference. A=46.1 mpg, B=44.2 mpg and A=45.6 mpg. Chumly

[knochenhauer]

How did you mount the edging to your bumper? We would love to see more pictures of the installation!

[MetroMPG]

I'd like to put this on the front page, if you like. Please post another pic or two showing the whole front of the car.

[chumly]

[MetroMPG]

Thanks! The black pizza pans look good, too!

[chumly]

More pics