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Old 01-30-2012, 07:30 PM   #1 (permalink)
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Join Date: Jan 2012
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spyder2 - '00 Toyota MR2 Spyder
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hello!

Hi guys,
I'm a student at UC Berkeley, studying math. Fun stuff, not calculus :P
I don't have a car or anything, but mechanical engineering has always been a side interest of mine. As far as physics/engineering goes for me, I tend to find it incredibly boring when details are concerned, but reading about concepts and stuff is very interesting to me. Ironically physics tends to "make sense" to me really fast while math is a bit tougher in that respect, but I guess I like the challenge.

Anyways I'm a control freak/efficiency monger, and cars are probably the single largest waste of useful fuel energy in Western nations, so naturally this place got my attention. I've been on ft86club for some time, where the topics I tend to talk about are aerodynamics and engine tech because that's all I really know about :P I think it'll probably be the first car I buy, assuming I don't end up on the streets starving.

So being a math person, I love simple, and I hate computation, optimization, tedious work, and experimentation. This is perfect for ecomodding cars, because a car is extremely difficult to make significant changes to, so I can just stick to simple mods that don't need much to verify that they work.

Now about my intended future car; The FRS/BRZ already will have pretty good fuel efficiency from the factory. From what I have read about D4-S, this car should have excellent cruising efficiency because the cams are long duration for max volumetric efficiency high in the rpm range, and thus will have low volumetric efficiency in the low rpm range, which as you all probably know is a great thing for fuel economy. D4-S apparently is able to stabilize combustion at low intake speeds so well that the torque/emissions/efficiency is actually not noticably lower than a typical port injected 2L engine that is optimized for low rpm!

Unfortunately the gear ratios have been released and 6th gear is only 0.767 on the manual, with the lower final drive ratio this gives about 2350 rpm at 60mph, which using the published 0.27 C_d would give only 25% load on the engine. The differential appears to be swappable with several older cars, and the final drive ratio can be increased, but I don't know that that would be a good idea for overall car performance.

As far as drag goes, there are underbody covers but they don't cover the suspension components, so that'll be the first thing done to the car. The rear windshield doesn't appear to taper so some C pillar attachments to reduce induced drag. The wheel well gaps are huge, so 1" lowering plus some foam rubber skirts on the sides should do well cosmetically and slightly reduce the air that gets into the wheel well. I refuse to completely cover the wheels, but I want to try the centrifugal fan on wheel idea because it helps cool brakes as well, in case that ever becomes necessary. I'm thinking clear PETG cover over the outside of the wheel, and then flat pieces attached to the spokes...that should give a reasonably simple to build, and reasonably efficient centrifugal fan that isn't affected by orientation. The windshield angle was reduced during design for visibility, so I might add a piece to the hood to reduce separation there. Hopefully there's an easy way to put a diffuser that extends past the bumper, to fill in the wake area a bit.

As far as engine mods go, I want to eventually try out a turbocompound exhaust to help with high end efficiency, but that will obviously cost quite a bit of money...Simple mod would be alternator switch connected to gas and brake: if gas is pressed more than a little, alternator is off, if brake is pressed, alternator on, and then a bypass switch for highway driving.

Anyways just sharing some ideas, and I hope I can have positive contribution to the forum

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Old 02-10-2012, 09:58 PM   #2 (permalink)
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Welome! I don't usually visit the intro's too much, but YOU have a lot going on under YOUR hood. I hope you're still hanging with us.

I'm the furtherest thing from a Mr. Math: you may have intimidated some w your
entry knowledge.

I'm somewhat embarrassed that you wern't already greeted!

Start posting anyway!

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