Massive air dam on '98 Geo Metro (Firefly), A-B-A coastdown test; Update: version 2

[MetroMPG]

Oh yes, the Crisis Fighter Pinto! I forgot about their massive air dam. (So much info passes in one eye and out the other...)



From the Car and Driver report:

For maximum effectiveness, this one was designed with only two inches of ground clearance and as much of a wedge contour as possible to split the air in front of the car

...

At seventy mph, that simple sheet of aluminum added 0.9 miles per gallon to our test Pinto. [From 14.5 mpg unmodified, at 70 mph]

EcoModder blog: Crisis Fighter Pinto

[cfg83]

MetroMPG -

The Pinto is what I was thinking about also :

At seventy mph, that simple sheet of aluminum added 0.9 miles per gallon to our test Pinto. [From 14.5 mpg unmodified, at 70 mph]

( 14.5 + 0.9 ) / 14.5 = 1.062 => 6.2% Improvement @ 70 MPH.

CarloSW2

[BamZipPow]

What kind of support do you have on the bottom edge? I dropped my air dam really low with coroplast and the bottom edge had a tendency to fold in/over at higher speeds...especially when the air got dense with humidity.

[MetroMPG]

There's nothing running the full width of the bottom edge, but there are 4 folded V-shaped vertial wedges/braces supporting the face of the dam against the OEM bumper. Sort of like this:



The curved sides of the dam are reinforced at the bottom edge by a wide lip on the inside that goes from the outermost of the 4 braces, around to the edge of the wheel arch.

I've taken it up to 100 km/h so far, with no visible deformation ... only checked afterwards, though. I didn't rig my web cam for a live view.

[MetroMPG]

I just realized the braces would be damaged if they hit something low down. I mean.. if they weren't cardboard... assuming a "good" version of this were made.

Better to have slightly shorter braces, and some sacrificial Home Depot lawn edging as the lowest point of the dam that could take a hit.

[alohaspirit]

so are the results in?


or are we still polling

[Christ]

I think you're going to get called a ricer. I can feel it. Someone is going to mistake that as a lame attempt at reproducing a body kit....

[Christ]

Ricer. :P

[Frank Lee]

I still can't get over a 4-banger Pinto only getting 14.5mpg. My 4x4 V8 F150 does better than that unless I'm towing. Used to have an F250 4x4 with a 460 V8 that got 13-14 NO MATTER WHAT. There is something wrong with this equation.

I don't remember them being THAT bad, 70 mph notwithstanding.

I got around 20ish with my 283 V8 a/t equipped Nova- supposed to be 55mph but often was closer to 70.

Was their car messed up?

[alohaspirit]

im sure if i pull up to a light and rev

someone would call me a ricer

*shrugs*