neighborhood going to the tails (spotted a 2nd gen. Prius with a boattail on my road)

[Weather Spotter]

Well its true, I now live on a 2 mile rural road with two boat tails!

My matrix:


His Prius :








I stopped by today after church and talked with the neighbor about our tails. He is still working on it but it looks great so far! As of this point he is still a lurker but I recommended forum membership and a build thread I will not spoil all the details so he can start his own thread or take over this one.

I can say its cheap, effective and easy to take on and off and the work is not done. The light area is next on his to do list.

What are your thoughts on the bottom angle?

[skyking]

My thoughts are, how fantastic to have some company in the modding.

[Weather Spotter]

The cool thing is that he was going to stop by today and I stopped over at his place first

I think seeing my car got the idea gears Turing in his mind (I might be mistaken but I think that is what he said).

[Cd]

Awesomeness !

I was wondering who was going to be first to mod a Prius with a 'tail.

[Cd]

I notice he even has the box cavity at the rear of the tail.

Those edges have me worried though, since they are not radiused, but I'm sure that's in the making !

[Weather Spotter]

I think it is in progress, He said he was working on a clear cover for the tail lights to smooth out air flow.

The back is open as the bottom needs to be fully closed in. we were both unsure if this might be a good feature?

[MetroMPG]

Aeromodder see, aeromodder do.

My first thought: fantastic!

Originally Posted by Cd

Those edges have me worried though, since they are not radiused,

That was my second thought.

Third thought: I look at the "step" from the OEM spoiler down to the tail, and it appears it was done on purpose so as not to cover up the center-mounted brake light. I do wonder about flow separation at that point though. I'd definitely want to tuft it to see the effect on flow on the tail.

Bottom angle looks OK to me. My own experimenting showed that there's not likely going to be attached flow on the bottom of the tail, regardless of how gentle the angle of its rise - unless there's a full belly pan ahead of it anyway.

I'm really looking forward to hearing about the project & results from the builder!

[MetroMPG]

(PS - hope you don't mind I fleshed out the thread title a bit to make it more "scan" and search engine friendly.)

[Weather Spotter]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

(PS - hope you don't mind I fleshed out the thread title a bit to make it more "scan" and search engine friendly.)

no problem, good titles are not my strong suit.

the sides match the sides on the Prius pretty well, not sure rounding will gain much. But He said that this very much a work in progress.

He did design the tail not to cover up the third light. I mentioned that this was a big problem area, and he came up with an idea on the spot, match the height and add a clear section so the light is still visible. I hope he does it and joins up, his ideas on mounting the tail are fantastic. I bet with some pics of how he did it several others would be able to make removable tails for trips and take them on and off in 4-5 min.

He can detail costs better then I but lets just say what he has so far is several factors cheaper compared to the $300 or so I spent on mine.

His one week best estimate of results are very impressive too (I will let him share the scoop on that)

side question, how much benefit will a full belly pan do for me? I know the back 4 feet of my cars underside is a disaster, and to fix it will require a full pan about an inch lower then the underside is right now.

[JethroBodine]

Hey Spotter- I just found this thread, and that is great. I haven't seen any new Prius build threads, so I'm guessing your neighbor hasn't joined yet(unless I missed it). Any new developments?