Increasing FE in gas versus hybrid cars question
 

Pardon me if this is a simplistic observation. But, I am somewhat new to Hypermiling and this just occurred to me;

Building a project FE car starting with a hybrid should yield higher mpg improvement numbers than with a gas only vehicle because if you increase your FE by, say, 10% overall on a car that already sees 50mpg, you net a 5mpg improvement. Whereas improving a 20mpg vehicle by 10% only nets 2mpg increase. The flip side to this is that improving a gas hog by 10% saves more gas overall than cutting an already FE vehicle's consumption by the same %.

Is my thinking correct in this?

Matt

Let's put fuel efficiency into two categories: Aerodynamics and fuel consumption. In both categories, your car beats mine soundly.

However, many members say "Your mileage may vary." If you and I did the same modifications, I may see a larger proportional improvement, but probably would not see an equal MPG gain. Perhaps I could keep up.

Maybe I am just doomed because of my drivetrain.

Yes and no. It's logically correct if you insist on keeping the gas hog, but if you want to get good mpg (not just a good percentage increase), the first step is to get rid of the gas hog.

It's not about how much gas you save.
It's about how much - or how little - you use ;)
Not %-wise, but in gallons / liters.

The same % improvement will translate into many more gallons / liters not used on a gas guzzler, than it will on an already fuel efficient vehicle.

Stated otherwise, it becomes more difficult and less (financially) rewarding to improve upon an already fuel efficient vehicle .
That's the law of diminishing benefits.

Here on Ecomodder.com, we do not let that stop us! :D

Heck, I am a crazy person. I do not mind paying a couple hundred bucks for something that will save me 1mpg. I am looking into cameras to eliminate my side mirrors. :)

For me, this is a hobby. I love it and it does save me money (even if the return may take a very long time). I would rather spend money on something cool that I own, than to continue sending money to our enemies overseas for more gas. So, spending money on items to help me save fuel is a no-brainer.

Matt

Yes, I see this as a hobby, but I hope that our work will catch on. I have seen a few users on here make aerocaps. Bondo is trying to produce them commercially. There is a thread about commercially producing side skirts. Some of our modifications require hundreds of hours for something that non-ecomodders consider to be ugly. I think that some of the projects on here are beautiful. Hopefully, we can learn from each other, and save some time and effort. Maybe someday people will be able to purchase fuel-efficient body kits.

I see it as a hobby but also a creative competition with oneself to see just how good one can design and create ;)

Body kits today are tough to design for the simple reason most cars are unibody construction. We do not have cars today being commercially built like they were back in the 70's like the VW bug which had a separate chassis and steel removable body for example. Now if a guy wanted to design essentially a super aerodynamic kitcar that is based on a bug chassis I think that could do very well in fact. There were many kitcars designed around the VW bug chassis. Some were even electric in nature such as the Bradley GTE :thumbup:

All you would need to do is find an old rusted out bug and scrap the rusted steel body and restore the chassis and build your aerodynamic composite or aluminum shell around it. I am doing just this but with a different donor chassis out of a 1970's Triumph GT6. The Chassis of the GT6 only weighs 105lbs so pretty light to start off with. They are hard to come by pretty rare cars here in the US but they share the same platform with the Spitfires which are much more easy to source. The VW bugs are far easier to find and more part sources fro also but have some key drawbacks which is why I did not go with them.

Well, I measured my outside mirrors. Those freaking things are the size of barn doors. They measure 6 inches high and 9 inches wide. Sheesh, they are HUGE!

I wonder how much I could save by removing the passenger side mirror? It looks like 1 mpg on the highway is possible. Maybe I will look into a tiny driver's side mirror to satisfy the legal eagles and go with decent fish-eye cameras for useability sake and convenience.

The beauty of mods like this is that the gains stack up. 1mpg here 1/2 mpg there and before you know it, you have something substancial. I would love to see 5mpg increase on the highway and 2mpg at 35 to 40mph in town. I already have my wheel covers on, next is the mirror delete, then I have the 3 front grilles to make smooth covers for and the belly pan to finish. Oh, the chin spoiler needs to be dropped too. I bet that 5mpg I am looking for is not too much to ask......

Matt

I just removed my passenger side mirror and replaced it with a thin sheet of carbon fiber.

Geeze, this thing is gargantuan......

I have to start a C-Max modding thread......

Matt