Hello from England (02 Nissan Micra K11 1.0L)

[Noddy]

Just about to refuel - but managed over 450 miles on the last fill-up, which I am very pleased about.

[Daox]

Originally Posted by Noddy

I have been keeping a paper log of fuel consumption and mileage, and will be inputting them into an Excel spreadsheet at some point.

If you make a garage entry here, you can enter it and share your fuel log with everyone here.

[Noddy]

Thanks, Daox. Another newbie question for which I apologise in advance: how do I make a garage entry? Happy to share my mileage with the forum.

[Daox]

Click the "garage" link up at the top of the page. From that page you can click 'add new vehicle'. After you have done that, you can go to that vehicle's fuel log and add a fuel log entry.

[Noddy]

Here are some photos of my car:

Pictures taken on a wet Saturday morning in October...


This is a side view from the passenger side (remember here we drive on the left so the steering wheel is on the right).

[IMG]20141004_093117 by mucephei, on Flickr[/IMG]

View from the front:

[IMG]20141004_093155 by mucephei, on Flickr[/IMG]


Here's a detail of the missing passenger side wing mirror:

[IMG]20141004_093135 by mucephei, on Flickr[/IMG]

Looking in the boot, you can see I have stripped out most of the junk - so far i have yet to remove the spare wheel and jack even though the jack itself is about 3 pounds of steel:


[IMG]20141004_093050 by mucephei, on Flickr[/IMG]

This is the rear view - what most tailgaters see lol:

[IMG]20141004_093026 by mucephei, on Flickr[/IMG]

Here's a closer view of the front of the car - a lot of grille area that could be blocked:

[IMG]20141004_093230 by mucephei, on Flickr[/IMG]

And finally a close-up of one of the blanked-off spaces where fog lights would go - this hollow looks to me as though it could be covered up to make more of an air dam:

[IMG]20141004_093208 by mucephei, on Flickr[/IMG]

[MetroMPG]

Neat car. What's the curb weight?

Those factory wheel covers are great - pretty smooth.

I'd focus on grille blocks adjusted for your driving before worrying about smoothing over those fog light inserts. (Are the inserts closed, or open through the bumper?)

That thing's got grille overkille.

[elhigh]

If you're doing a lot of stop-and-go, weight reduction is good. But even knowing that I don't know if I could ever pull the radio. If I don't have the radio, I can hear the voices in my head.

That Is A Bad Thing.

I don't remember where I read it, but a thing I saw as a kid - this was probably around 1980 or so - said that 3/4 of the energy a bicyclist used at 25mph was fighting aerodynamic drag. If aero is that important (for an admittedly very UNaerodynamic bicyclist) at such a low speed, then you know that making aero improvements even for modest in-town speeds won't be a wasted effort.

Looking at your pictures, I guess you can probably block off your car's upper "nostrils" and certainly those lower openings in the fascia directly ahead of the front wheels.

To avoid unnecessary risk, hold off blocking openings until your ScanGauge is attached. Then set up a gauge to show you your coolant temperature (and another that will tell you if your cooling fan comes on, if available), and close off one nostril. If the temp doesn't go up, carry on with the next. Continue with closing off forward openings, keeping an eye on the coolant temperatures. If your temp rises into the danger zone or the cooling fan comes on all the time, open something back up.

Start a garage page for your car, and track your tank-to-tank results here. Every good result may inspire another Micra owner to similar improvements.

[Noddy]

just entered Noddy in the Garage - need to input fuel data later. Kerb weight is listed as 850Kg according to a French website I have just looked up. If I get around to it I'll try to look up the official weight in the owner's handbook.

[MetroMPG]

850 kg = 1873 lbs... Sounds a tad high to me. Maybe that's the gross weight?

[Noddy]

Yes it does seem high - but I've not been able to find data for empty weight.