The extreme AreoCRX-HF project
 

Found my ideal car, the best MPG stock car ever sold int he USA..

The car is a 87 CRX-HF, rust free, rough around the edges but low milage the motor and trans are really tight!

I was so inspired by the AreoCivic that i had to build one .. this is the start of that very project..

The project will be a extreamly AeroCRX-HF.

Now why am i blathering on about it here, I want your input and assistance on this project, Basically suggest your ideas and ill get them done as a kind of community experiment.

Ill post some photos ect. tomorrow for you to ponder over.. photo shop and just plain have fun with..

Got any price goals? I'm thinking of a similar project for a friend...but with the 88-91 era in order to swap a d15z1 in, :)

I wanted to add that the car runs great but i was getting a few oddities in its idle so I figured its got to be a vacume leak, shot some starting fluid around the carb area and sure enough it is.. just have to pin point it exactly tomorrow..

Also I pulled all the plugs and replaced them and those plugs are perfect well perfect as used up plugs can look, I always pull the plugs they can tell alot about a motor..

still cant belive how tightthis motor sounds for 129,000 miles, sound smoother than many new cars.. This is my first Honda.. Im so impressed that they can make a car get 50MPG thats carbed and 20 years ago.. and 20 years later and 129,000 miles later the motor can sound that good.. WOW!!

Well goals yes as Aero as i can get it.. and done fairly inexpensively, the car only cost $950.. I want to build the new nose and tail from foam insulation and then sculpt it to the perfect shapes and then fiber glass over it to make it durable..

I'M totally open to suggestions however.. as I'm totally new to this Aero stuff.. but plan many mods like what the Eurocivic has done.. full nose tail wheel skirts, side skirts etc..

The only bad thing is its carbed so I cant computer monitor the fuel consumption.. Ill probably be vacuum gauge for instrumentation..

However i wonder if having a carb. could add some benefits to getting better MPG.

At first i thought it was fuel injected as when i started it for the test drive it was cold and it high idled and idled down just like a FI car.. almost had me fooled till i opened the air cleaner to look for blow by etc...

I kind of want to prove that a 80mpg car isnt rocket science nor for rich people only .. foam and fiber glass are dirt cheap :)

Fuel flow meters off the shelf are about $120 hook to the MPGuino and you have a digital mpg computer.

Really, awesome where would i get these parts?

I have attached a very rough idea of what I'm thinking for the nose and tail.. the CRX isn't red this was my idea drawing before I got the CRX today.. I'm no graphic artist..

http://www.ebacherville.com/cgi-bin/...XNosenTail.jpg

the contour i was thinking something like the nose of a late model firebird.. but less flat frontal area.
http://media.motortopia.com/files/14...e_P1010099.jpg

i have to add that on the way home it was raining the entire way amd the mist wake behind the CRX was almost nothing and the rear windows had Zero rain on it.. totally clear.. Signaling its air flow over the car is very efficient..

In the Crx's case the wipers are in a air flow zone, as i was watching rain rdops fly across the winscreen to get a idea of the aerodynamics of the car.. thinking rising the rear of the hood and making a cowl will be beneficial.. and probably lower its air drag even more.

Still cant see how with the fairly boxy front end they get 50 MPG.. we will start where Honda left off :)

Well i found the vacume leak, the isolation plate on the carb had a hair line crack in the plastic materia.. ordered a new one for it , .. wonder how much better its going to run it was running quite well already .. The crack in it was very small but didnt pass the starting fluid test.. so it gets replaced..

I also found out that the carb was rebuilt 3 years ago, got all the maintance records from the 2 previous owners.. 3 years ago it only had 65,000 miles on it...

Photos of the car comming soon.

Here are some photos, as i said its rough around the edges but , the mechanics of the car were far more important than ascetics since that going to drastically change anyway.

here is the side, that has the big ad dent in the panel.. totally repairable but ugly:
http://www.ebacherville.com/cgi-bin/...TheCRXside.jpg

and here is the front, where the grill piece is gone, the guy was smart enough to put some screen over it to protect the radiator, however its totally not aerodynamic now..
http://www.ebacherville.com/cgi-bin/...heCRXfront.jpg

If your wondering the hood is totally fine, in the photo its popped.. FYI

Congrats on the find!

Phil Knox (aerohead here) extensively aeromodded his CRX just like this one. You could do worse than to use it as an example. His work was estimated by a 3rd party at Cd .23 when he was finished:

http://forum.ecomodder.com/showthrea...0.html?p=18976

I think i just came up with a neat thing I can do since my CRX has a carb.. some how make a sensor that lets me know when i open the secondary butterfly in the carb... or a way totally eliminate the secondary from operation.. like a electronic lock to keep you out of the secondary that you can disengage via a switch if you need it... However this will happen after the areo mods.

Ill also be running a vacuum gauge inside for monitoring too.

UPS dropped of my new carb plate, and I installed it and its running absolutely perfect!!!

And i didn't mess anything up with all those vacuum lines etc.. that was my worst fear id screw them up and be cratching my head a while..

Anyway this means I can start on the body mods now.. Let the fun begin!!

Sweet! Looking forward to pictures of the progress.

Progress moving along quickly!!

First i used some PEX tubing to make some frame work for the body work, pex makes nice rounded corners easily and is lightweight and flexible.. Below are some photos of the framework.
http://www.ebacherville.com/AreoCRX/DSC01582.JPG
http://www.ebacherville.com/AreoCRX/DSC01583.JPG

Next I got some cheap fleece, fabric.. its soft and pours and stretchable in any direction.. The fleice was stretched over the frame work and then fiberglass resin applied to it as you apply resin to the fleece you need to keep it taught.. after drying you have a nice light weight shell..
Here are some photos half way through the progress, i worked my way from the top down ding parts at a time and letting the resin set and lock into the PEX framework..
http://www.ebacherville.com/AreoCRX/DSC01588.JPG
http://www.ebacherville.com/AreoCRX/DSC01587.JPG
http://www.ebacherville.com/AreoCRX/DSC01586.JPG

So for materials used for this front will be 1.5 gallons of fiberglass resin, 4 yards of fleece and 40 feet of pex tubing and 5 eyelet bolts (this is what I used to attack the PEX to the radiator support on the car) and 8 screws to screw PEX to the plastic bumper cover

Man, looks sweet! I'm so excited to watch your progress! Basjoos beware, :)

Yeah I'm surpriser how quickly this is coming along.. Ill have the entire front end upper shell done today, then ill let it cure fully and cut the holes for the lights and then start adding foam and shaping it better.

Ill also be re-enforceing the bond between he PEX and the resen'd fleece from he under side with a layer of fleece and resin to ensure it can handle some rough treatment.. once thats done ill be able to cover the bottom up.

Do you have any Cd goals?

well the entire thing is done minus the bottom once it cures ill beabl3 to tackle the bottom.. ill need to make some braces for the underside.

Ill get some more photos tomorrow

Not really, I would not know how to get a good estimate of that anyhow.. however i want improvements logically ..

My main goal I want to boost MPG to above 80mpg .. preferably 100mpg... however there is a point that you get deminishing returns.. aerodynamics is a easy huge gain thats well worth the effort, so far this nose is about 4 hours of work.

Great thread! That nose does look like the trans am, a lot. Not only will it be pretty cool looking but functional as well. I'm definitely interested in your results and the finished product. Keep up the good work and congrats on the find.

couple idea:
1) over heating due to lack of airflow on the rad?
2) wheel shirts
3) maybe fill the savvy section with foam to smooth out the saggy bits?


Looking good!

Yeah ill be adding air vents to allow cooling

And filling in the sags with foam to smooth it out.. this is just the simplest way to get a nice strong shaped front end short of carving it all out of a foam block.. thats was my first idea..

Wheel skirts are next on my agenda after the nose is done.

After skirts a boat tail on the rear


As for the Trans-am comments.. slightly yes but its far more rounded than a trans am. If I wasn't required to have a front license plate I would have continued the point out more.. but need to have a place to mount the plate on the front.. so i have 7" of flat frontal area.

I may make my air intake for the radiator under the nose, as there is going to be a high pressure area there anyhow.

Holy crap !!!
WOW !

You do move fast .... and it is looking AWESOME !

Yeah a bit, but i was on a incline there while I was working the nose is just about bumper hight, its actually higher than the factory lowest point of the air dam on the crx.. It just sticks out 2 feet extra.. I'm just going to drive like a lowrider riced out Honda I guess.. :thumbup:

Yeah the sooner i get this think road worthy the sooner ill be saving some big cash every week on gas.

Well as for worring about curbs etc, well it s not to bad.. i was able to gtet it up on Ramps...

Here are some photos of it up on ramps, I was coating the inside with a laer of resin and bracing everything under there..

http://www.ebacherville.com/AreoCRX/...ps%20front.jpg
http://www.ebacherville.com/AreoCRX/...mps%20side.jpg

You can get a good idea of the profile of the nose.. leaves plenty of clearance, i was very suprise i could get ramps under there, its a tight fit but worked fine.

Once i get the entire thing coated with resin inside and out ill start filling the voids with foam and smoothing it out a bit.

http://www.hotrod.com/featuredvehicl.../photo_38.html

This is the first thing that ran through my head when I saw the nose on your car.

Your version seems to be even more pointed, and directs more air to the sides.
I think that was a wise move.

What do you plan to do as far as the headlights ? To conform to the law ( as well as avoid getting the lights busted from speed bumps ) the lights must be at least " X " amount above the ground. Check your local laws.

Since you have done such a radical shape shift ( and done it so professionally ) it would be a shame to try to use the clunky looking lights that came standard with the car.
Have you considered trying some unique ones such as some Xeon replacement lights for a Mazda 6 or some other newer car ? ?

ill be cutting holes in the faring fro them in there stock placement and making lexan covers that conform to the shape.. there be stock for the most part with a clear housing to make them Areo..

Somthing like the old 240z can have or the late 70's road racers did.

http://www.madle.org/ms06gt40.jpg

http://forzamotorsport.net/NR/rdonly...eft2better.jpg

the entire nose has now been coated with 2 layers of resin and braced up on the under side...letting it cure and ill start putting the holes for the lights and i need to add some blinkers in the front to be compliant with local laws

What about the height of the lights themselves ?

I was thinking of lowering my car and found out that I could be ticketed because they must be so many inches above the ground to be legal. ( I seem to remember 24 " or so ... it's been a while. )

That 240Z looks a lot like the Z I had. It's hard for me to see how such a sleek looking car like that could be such a turd to the wind. ( something like .46 .Cd )

I remember I could let off of the gas and the car would come to a stop in just a few hundred feet. Now I know why.

they will be the stock height, I'm not even moving them from the stock location they will just have a cover over them for aerodynamics..

Well toiday i put some foam on and started to see how it well would shape.. definatly works well, need to stock up on some foam now..

New photos soon

:thumbup:

cut out part of the headlight holes tonight.. and did some more foam work.. hoping to make lots of progress this weekend.. but the foam and sanding etc is a slow process , the foam takes 8+ hours to cure ..

I also have to relocate the blinkers from the bumper to the new nose.. no big deal but has to be done to stay legal..

What kind of foam are you working with?

Are you using a spray foam, such as "Great Stuff"?

It can be a great filler material, as long as it is covered with a protective material, such as your fiberglass or paint.

Just don't get Great Stuff on your clothes. Found that one out when I built my camper!

While it's still curing, you can use acetone to cut Great Stuff. Once it's cured... too late!

After some wind tunnel testing, another forum I'm on got the .Cd down to .395, lol.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...g/PICT0446.jpg

Fortunately, because of the small size (18.5 ft^2), the .CdA is less than a civic!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automob...g_coefficients

Thats the CdA of a 240SX, not a 240Z.

A 240Z would be 18.5ft^2 x .395 = 7.31

Probably not less than a Civic, but not too far from it.

7.34 2001 Honda Civic > 7.31 Datsun 240z

I got my data for the civic from the wiki link. The data for the z came from wind tunnel testing.