groar's 1997 Megane Modding Thread

[groar]

A few weeks ago an itinerant spectacle came in my town and their advertisements were installed everywhere in the city. As soon as the last show finished, they picked up their ads and went away.

A few weeks after I could see they forget several ads at a crossroad. I looked at them and they were made of coroplast A few days after I decided to pick them up... At first I took only 2 sheets : 160x60 cm (62x23 inches) each. Later I decided to pick them all and finally I got 10 sheets.

As they were used two by two around a post, they are rounded (see 1st picture). They have also some plastic to protect the sheet of paper on which is printed the schedule. It took me more than one hour to remove the plastics and staples one by one (around 40 by coroplast sheet...).

Finally I let it under the sun so the water from the last rain could evaporate (2nd picture).

I began to build the non-cardboard rear wheel skirts from these coroplast sheets. As the coroplast is thinner than the cardboard, I will have to rebuild a part of it as it's now too close to the wheel. Next episode for a next week-end...

Denis.

[cfg83]

groar -

Originally Posted by groar

...

I basjoosed with some tape the spaces between the roof and the front and rear windshields (1st and 2nd pictures). I bought some transparent tape for greenhouses, ie waterproof and resisting to UV and temperature changes. As said in another thread : if it doesn't help, it shouldn't hurt

...

Denis.

Oooh, I didn't know about this stuff. I usually use packaging tape. I am going to buy some.

CarloSW2

[groar]

Originally Posted by cfg83

Oooh, I didn't know about this stuff. I usually use packaging tape. I am going to buy some.

Just discovered this thread :
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...-mods-463.html

As said, don't forget to also clean your hands, or you'll have tons of fingerprints all under the seethrough tape. Also do it slowly or you'll end with tons of bubbles.

Denis.

[cfg83]

groar -

I hadn't seen that thread either. This looks like a good way to make a stealthy door handle cover.

CarloSW2

[groar]

Few months ago, I had to remove the (cardboard) lower grill block because megane had a problem at the radiator. After the repair I did a coroplast upper grill block.

The 1st version of the new upper grill block prevented anybody to open the hood, so I had to make a 2nd version to permit to change the oil (changed last week from 5W40 to 5W30). The 1st version was conceived by 1 single part so the Renault emblem and the hole between it and the bumper were hidden. The 2nd one is simply the first one without the central part.

Here are 2 pictures of the 2nd version :

• from the front :

• from the side :

To make the engine hot quicker, or to keep the engine hot longer, the upper grill block seams to be as effective as the lower grill block.

Only recently I remarked that above 80 km/h I'm hearing the wiper blades. I remarked it by the fact the noise disappeared when I removed the wiper blades in the hope to have a better Cd. I think this can be explained by the fact that more air is pushed over the hood.

Denis.

[groar]

A couple months ago I rebuild the rear wheel skirts, but this time I used coroplast. As they are identical to the carboard version, no picture are available except that they are present in the first 3 following pictures.

Finally I did an uglyback (I will not use a more usual term to not disturb the German aerodynamicist Wunibald Kamm).
Here are 3 pictures from the exterior :

• from the side :

• from the rear side :

• from the rear :

I don't know if I should close the triangle holes at both sides.

The 2 vertical parts at the rear are caught by the hatch, which participates to secure it with all the "power tape" used.

The uglyback has been conceived to permit to open the hatch :

First I drove in the neighborhood to verify that under 50 km/h (30 mph) the uglyback stayed in place. Then I drove a couple km in city and a couple hundred meters at 70 km/h (43 mph). I stopped and inspected it, but saw nothing alarming.
Then I drove several km in my usual way : P&G (engine on) at 70-80 km/h (43-50 mph) and inspected it again without seeing anything.
I finished the day by driving several dozen of km (20+ miles). Noticeably I went shopping to try to find a hubcap to replace the one I lost last week... but I was unsuccessful.

Quickly my butt-o-meter told me that the car was coasting longer, but I couldn't verify it really. As it was raining from time to time I had the wiper blades. Also as the rear view is partially blocked (more about that next week...) I unfolded the passenger mirror to comply to French law to have 2 unobstructed mirrors. In several parts of the road I drive daily, I was overspeed today where I'm not usually...

During the driving today, a lot of people were looking at the uglyback. I never had so much looks with the grill blocks or the rear wheel skirts. Some broke their neck while they were passing me. I even saw someone taking my car in picture with his phone while he was driving...

Since several weeks I want to have some road sign drawn on the car has some trucks have. Back home I made a few little drawing directly on the uglyback :
The arrow should be white in a blue circle, but thought about it after the arrow was drawn in red.

Before mid-july megane will have to pass a technical inspection, so I'll have to remove the aero-helps. I hope I'll be able to use that occasion to make a A+/A/A-/B (from more to less aero-helps) coast down testing.

Denis.

[PaleMelanesian]

Missed this thread before. Subscribed.

I like your rear skirts. Extending them to the front and back of the actual wheel well makes them look good.

Have you considered a trunk (hatch? boot?) lip spoiler? That edge is very rounded - probably not the best for aero.

This is what the Civic hybrid has:

[groar]

Here are two others pictures :

• First the mod I did last week-end : a 1.5W / 12V solar panel directly connected to the battery :

I will not show or tell more about that, this mod is uglier than the uglyback...
Not only 1.5W is nothing compared the to car consumption, but also such amorphous panel looses a lot of power during 1st year and its performance decreases a lot when heat increases. As an eco-geek I couldn't stop from building that mod

• Then the board of the megane, only because some people may be curious :

(OK in fact it's because the idiot light is always off and I drove 45 miles more than during my previous longest tank ).
Notes :

• The temperature is just under the 2nd mark. When the engine is hot it's at the 3rd mark. The picture was taken about 1/2 hour after I switched off the car and in such situation only 1-2 km is enough to make it hot again.
• The trip odometer, the lower one, resets to zero after 999.9 kms, so I'm at 1364.2 kms since last fill-up.
• The idiot light switches on at around 51 L when I fill up to the second click. Now I'm filling up at top and there is around 1 L between 2nd click and top, so I'm under 52 L (13.7 gal.) and over 61.7 mpg.

Denis.

[Piwoslaw]

WOW!!!
That is a great job, Denis

Originally Posted by groar

During the driving today, a lot of people were looking at the uglyback. I never had so much looks with the grill blocks or the rear wheel skirts. Some broke their neck while they were passing me. I even saw someone taking my car in picture with his phone while he was driving...

Let's hope you don't get ticketed for being a distraction/hazard on the road. Some policemen may not like sillymobiles. I personally don't think it's silly and I would like to see more cars like that on the roads. BTW, will those additions be painted? I think if they were a color similar to the car then they wouldn't be so noticeable.

Originally Posted by groar

I like how the circus character drawn on the underside is reflecting in the rear window
I wonder if the supports couldn't be taped edge-on? This would give you much better visability, so you wouldn't have to unfold the passenger side mirror.

Originally Posted by groar

Before mid-july megane will have to pass a technical inspection, so I'll have to remove the aero-helps.

Do you know for sure that the tech station won't like those mods, or are you just not wanting to take chances? If they are not against any laws then inspection shouldn't be a problem.

[groar]

Pale, I was wondering how to extend my uglyback down to the rear end of the notch while keeping it usable. My goal is to have a hatchback à la Citroen C4 coupé :

But while my notchback has a Cd of 0.31, I know that the 5 doors version of my megane has a Cd of 0.32 :

Certainly because the angle is too important, more than the one of my uglyback. I have to confess that I didn't calculated/measured the angle of my uglyback, but when I saw the 5 doors version side by side to my notchback I said me that I couldn't make worse and simply extending the roof should be OK.

From Hucho's book, the ways to improve the Cd of a notchback are to :

• lower the angle of the rear window with the horizon
• increase the length of the notch and
• increase the height of the notch.

This book shows the notchbacks of the v.II vs the v.III of the audi 100 : respectively 57.5° vs 64.25° (Cd -0.01), +75mm (Cd -0.01) and 50mm (Cd -0.017).
I interpret this as : "the more the airflow reattach to the notchback, the more the Cd decreases".
It seams I lowered so much the angle of the rear window with my uglyback that the airflow doesn't touch the notch anymore. To make the airflow reattach, I would need something like this :

Which would also permit to open the hatch.
Now the questions are :

• should I close it ?
• do I close it at the front and/or at the rear side ?
• if I don't close it then should I put 1 or more parallel spoilers inside it ?

I'm reaching the limits of my competence... didn't had a lot of opportunities to read Hucho's book and only consulted some chapters I needed.

Denis.