Does anyone know this car? (boat-tailed 2nd gen. Prius spotted in the wild)

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by BamZipPow

Video driveby!!
https://gfycat.com/splendiddarlinghen

Being worked on...
https://i.redd.it/3isr3hgp7a141.jpg

"ChamPrius" is a basjoos redux if ever there was one (from design to build techniques). Awesome.

[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by freebeard

[citation needed]

The one thing you can't say about it is that it is pointless...

[Xist]

With that name I found a few others. The few positive comments from Reddit:
"This is actually the car of a physics professor at umass. He’s known for being eccentric. He claims he gains an extra 5mpg on the highway."

For anyone that's interested:

This is Champrius, a heavily modded Prius made by Kim Lumbard (you can find him on Instagram at kimlumbard). I've met him in real life (he is one of my mother's friends). That car has a solar panel, refrigerator, bed, and much more.

He recently succeeded in finishing his goal of getting a ticket in all 50 states (Alaska was the last state, we saw him right before he made his way up there).

Can someone clean up this image?
Jalopnik posted about it almost a year ago: Check Out the Awesome Gas-Saving Modifications on This Hypermiling Toyota Prius

[Xist]

First of all, I do not understand Instagram. The first time that I heard of it the silly girl said "It is like Facebook, but just pictures!" The result was that it loaded slower than something with more text.

The ChamPrius has burned oil since he bought it, he needed to replace the cat, and he installed an oil catch can to reduce oil burning.

It sounds like his belly pan originally covered the CC, but the mechanic said this would not have caused a problem, burning oil did.

The full name is Champrius Pukonversion because the cat caused a rotting smell and so did the vent hoses on the hybrid battery.

"Coroplast, which is short for corrugated plastic." I never thought about that!

The exhaust tip is connected by a flexible joint, which failed, trapping the heat inside of the belly pan.

He once accidentally left his car running for two days straight.

So, pictures:
He has a heated blanket under his mattress. If he sleeps with the engine off this half-drains his 12v battery:

His side skirts trapped a great amount of debris:

Belly pan:

Side skirts:

He put dryer hose in his side skirts to maintain their shape:

The plexiglas has cracked at least once:

The big hole is supposed to release the heat produced by the catalytic converter. The front flap is the inlet:

Heat failure:

The belly pan trapped debris, too:

His original front side skirts, which made the car quieter, but did not improve fuel economy. He removed them when he realized they floated outward, negating their benefit:

Basjoos style:

Wiper deflectors!:

Closing the wheel gap:

Parking lot hit and run:

[Xist]

That is it! This is the last time that I am working on someone else's project! I squared up the informational image, but typed it up below:

This hybrid is named
Champrius
She used to get 40 MPG, but now gets
60+ MPG
The modifications make her more aerodynamic.

The biggest contributors to fuel economy are:

1. This tail, reducing turbulence on the back
2. The grill blocking in the front near the radiator
3. Some belly pans on the underside
4. The moon disc hubcaps smoothing the wheels

She also has many minor changes like deflectors around the windshield wipers and door handles.

The goal is to achieve triple-diit MPG. Future mods:

• Finish the belly pans the whole length of the car
• Put a better nose on, removing the stagnation point
• Catamaran the wheel wells and tighten the air flow

Feel free to follow the madness: @KimLumbard.

[freebeard]

Thanks for all that work, liberating the data.

I think front wheel skirts need to be on a four-bar linkage instead of a top hinge. Then you just add weight to the bottom or bungies to hold them down.

[hayden55]

This guy sounds like blackandgreen

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by hayden55

This guy sounds like blackandgreen

Lol!

EDIT: ... my blackandgreen is way simpler and gets roughly the same FE.

[MetroMPG]

Thanks for posting all that, Xist! You earned that t-shirt.


If he "used to get 40 MPG", I'd like to know more about how fast he typically drives, and the highway/city mix.



I suspect it'd get waaay higher than 60 MPG driven in my typical environment (ie. mostly on the scenic route/back roads with 50 mph / 80 kph limits).

[Talos Woten]

Originally Posted by BamZipPow

Since the owner installed his license plate on the rear of the tail, wouldn't reverse lights need to be installed as well? I believe that the side markers need to be red fer the rear as well. I'm not sure about the requirement fer a rear bumper on cars though unless the owner considers the tail to be the bumper.

Hey all!

I'm the creator and owner of Champrius, the car pictured here.

She has all mirrors, they are just tiny. US interstate law says we need 10 sq in of area, and that's all I have. In addition, there are three rear cams: one center for backup, and two angled at 45 degrees for either lane.

The thing sticking out of the end was a flexible tailpipe. Which broke, flooded my tail with hot gas, melted my rear bumper, and destroyed version 2.0 of the boat tail. The current exhaust is under the tail, in a welded on steel pipe.

Champrius has been featured in many places including Sloppy Mechanics, Jalopnik, TikTok, and my personal favorite: ****ty Car Mods.

Parallel parking is fine. So is parking in parking spots, etc.

It is indeed a camper. She's Champrius, the Champion Camping Prius. I use her for extended road trips and camping excursions. She's got a fridge, stove, foam mattress bed, signal booster for internet, and all the comforts of home.

I used to have a flexible solar panel, under the tail canopy. Those things are crap and should be avoided at all costs. After three of them failing in quick succession and a whole lot of hassle, I slapped a rigid solar panel on the back and never looked back. I haven't had any problems with it yet, years later.

No glass has been removed. There's white vinyl on it, to reduce heat and for a modicum of privacy. Part of the roof has been removed. I made a small hole with a vent to a temperature controlled fan, to cool automatically when it gets hot. That's also where I route my signal booster.

PM me if you want my address to send me an Ecomodder sticker.

I'm unfamiliar with Judd Engles in Ohio. I'm very familiar with the Aerocivic, which was what version 2.0 was based on. In my latest version 4.0 I'm striking off into bold new territory, where no modder has gone before.

I'll post a thread once I hit 15 posts. Right now the forum isn't letting me do links, and there's a *ton* of useful links regarding Champrius.

I drive on the highway 75%+ of the time. I set the cruise control to 65 mph, and go to sleep. Seriously, I don't use any hypermiling techniques. Any mpg gains are pure aero / mechanical.

In order to make this legal in PA (my home state), I technically had to classify the tail as a trailer. Anything under 2ft can be considered a bumper; anything over is a trailer. So she has a DOT approved trailer light kit. That includes:
red marker lights at the end
yellow marker lights on the side
I didn't need conspicuity tape because it wasn't a minimum of 12 linear feet on edge. Rear backup lights aren't required on trailers, but I've decided to put them on my next version Champrius 4.0 which I'm building now.

Onward!