Lurker to lover

[rollercoaster]

Hello,

Found this place searching for hypermiling or something. -Been lurking, but it seems I could not hold back and had to join to help and learn.

Since the price of gas has gone up (again) I started hypermiling -mostly coasting in my Mazda6 2.3 5 speed. My recent job commute has a lot of hills, so I took advantage of that and learned it has been two weeks without getting gas!

The car has been lowered, and I removed that gawd awful wing off the trunk and put on the factory duck tail. I could get up to low 30's on the highway, but want to improve that.

Since reading this site, I went after some more parasite drag: the moon roof deflector came off, and the front license plate was relocated lower, and unscrewed the top portion of the antenna -oh and I butchered the airbox to let more air in the restricted inlet. (it already had a K&N filter) -Sounds cool too !

Next may be a exhaust header and removing the back exhaust for weight loss and less restriction. Also thinking about moon discs for the rims once I find lighter rims. The front fog lamps jut out a bit and I want to do something with that too.

Once I figure out where to find that plastic card board stuff I want to tastefully do some experiments.

Looking forward to experiment and making progress!

Doug E.

[MetroMPG]

Got a fuel consumption display yet? That's the most important piece of the puzzle. It'll help you refine your driving and will allow you to evaluate mods to the car. Otherwise you're kind of flying blind.

Also: it's not clear that changing exhaust will improve fuel economy. More peak power? Sure. More MPG? Not necessarily. It could possibly hurt at low engine speeds (where we tend to cruise to save fuel). Search around here to see what people say about it.

Welcome to the site.

[larrybuck]

Welcome!
Yes! Its a great feeling to start opening the wallet less often, and less wide.
Sounds like you are off to a great start.

Look up (google?) Coroplast to find in your area. Some on here have found it as close
as their nearest Home Depot.