Just another New Guy

[Maestro]

Hello everyone. I just jumped right into normal posting, so I guess I should come back here and say hello.

So hi! My name is Benjamin. I've lurked around here for a while looking for interesting tidbits and found a few. Nice forums!

I drive a slightly different vehicle than most on this forum I suppose, though there seem to be a decent number of pickup truckers here. My car is a '96 Chevy Silverado ECSB w/a 5.7 vortec. I haven't done any aero mods to it so far except a tonneau, and that was more for function, though the mpg bump was nice. I am probably going to do a full bellypan with some degree of tire fairings soon though, as while my truck is not lifted, it does have 33" tires and could definitely benefit from some bottom-smoothing and tire-hiding. The forum has been helpful in finding some figures to confirm that I actually would consider the bellypan worthwhile!

Generally, my fuel saving technique is not to drive, and I've only put twelve-thousand miles on the truck in the last 4.5 years. I've managed to get pretty good economy out of it though (for what it is, which is a tall, 7100lb truck with a square front-end) and typically average ~20mpg highway, which I believe is about 130% of EPA. Some upcoming engine mods and the bellypan in my future will hopefully improve that even further.

A little more about me: Mostly I like to tinker with engines for performance and am a fan of old-school american muscle (hence owning one of the last production Gen 1 small blocks), but I do not like to trade performance for economy, so I'm typically working to improve both at once. Efficient performance holds a certain aesthetic for me that I find it difficult to compromise on! My background is in aeronautical engineering and general design, as well as a few other areas irrelevant to this forum.

[RobertSmalls]

Welcome. We've got a few pickup truck modders here, and I'm glad to see another one here, especially one with some background in engineering.

Here's a site where you can look up your EPA fuel economy: Find a Car

Howdy Maestro,

Thanks for the detailed introduction. New here myself. As it turns out, there's lot's of Slipstreamers out here beyond the Thunder dome.


TS