Piwoslaw
 

Hi everyone:)
I'm Adam, a 29 yo math PhD (theoretic, not applied) from Warsaw, Poland. I don't yet have a car of my own, but I did drive an Opel (Vauxhall) Corsa 1.0 (C) for many years, now I get my In-law's Peugeot 206 every now and then. In both cases I learned a few fuel-saving techniques by myself. My wife and I are looking for a car for long distance driving, not too big but not too small: 2-4 people plus hiking backpacks, 400-600 km towards the mountains. We're just starting to zero-in on something which gets great highway milage ( maybe a Peugeot 307 1.4 Diesel), but I'm already thinking about how I'm going to lower its thirst when I get it into my hands :) That's how I found this TOTALLY AWESOME forum. I decided it wouldn't be fair if I just read the posts and didn't add anything from myself, so here I am! I'm hoping the info I get here will save us a lot of fuel, and I hope that anything I post will help someone else.
Regards,
Piwoslaw

Hi, Adam - welcome to EcoModder.

Glad you decided to post & I hope you'll keep us updated about your vehicle search and future mods.

Darin

Piwoslaw -

Welcome to EM! From a purely aesthetic POV, the 307 is my favorite Peugeot :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1224523237

CarloSW2

Welcome to the site. Let us know what you go with and start a fuel log to keep track of it. :)

So my wife and I finally bought a car.
It's a 2005 Peugeot 307sw station wagon with a 1.6 liter, 110hp turbodiesel engine. Its fuel economy is supposed to be 6.5/4.5/5.5 l/100km for city/highway/average (38/54/43mpg), I've only done a few hundred km so I don't know the real FE yet, but city driving and errands have so far showed between 5-6 l/100km. Its weight is just shy of 1500kg. My goal is to reduce its fuel consumption by at least 20%, maybe I can get down to an average of 3 l/100km on the highway.
Attachment 2260Attachment 2261
Here is a list of things I like and don't like about the car:
Ups:
- The turbodiesel is very efficient.
- The drag coefficient is 0.33, which isn't that bad. It could be better though.
- The transition from hood to windshield to roof is very smooth.
- The external mirrors can be folded electrically, an alternative to chopping.
- The underside is pretty smooth. The engine bay has a plastic undertray, the middle is smooth, only the rear is ulgy (muffler, spare wheel and rear bumper).
- The engine, hood and trunk lid are aluminium, the bumpers and front side panels are plastic, reducing weight. Also, a lighter engine warms up faster.
- Small rubber airdam under the front bumper.
- Built-in fuel gauge.
Downs:
- Lots of electronic gizmos: windows, heated front windshield and side mirrors, electrically adjustable side mirrors, power steering, rain sensor, light sensor, etc.
- Doorhandles.
- Roof rails.
- The undertray has 4-5 holes in the front, plus one in the middle that got knocked out.
- No garage included with the car, so it has to sleep under the stars. The last week has been below freezing.
- New 195/65R15 tires. 185 width would do just fine, maybe even 175 without sacrificing safety.

There is a lot I'd like to do with this car, but it also belongs to my Other Half, so any mods either have to have Her approval, or be more or less unnoticable (wink wink ;)). Among my first projects will be a primitive grill block for the lower, bumper grill. I'll try to home-brew mooncaps. Some internal side mirrors to get used to driving without the passanger side external mirror, though chopping might have to be replaced by simple folding (see: Other Half). Later I'd like to make skirts for the rear wheels and cover up the lower of the two upper grill slits. If I need to repace the suspension then I'll lower it 10-15mm. I'll also see if a kammback will have any luck with my wife.

I'd love to start on these mods ASAP, but I decided to wait a few months until I have better data on how much fuel Svietlana really drinks.

That's that. I'd like to ask for any comments and/or ideas. I'm sure there are things I haven't thought of and any help is more than welcome.
Thanks!

Piwoslaw -

Most excellent. I Ecomodded your Peugeot for fun :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...2&d=1227740475

- Moon Caps
- Rear Wheel Skirt
- Roof rail delete
- 11 degree Kamm-Back (clear + tint to make it easy to see in picture)
- Lowered "2 pixels"

CarloSW2

Wow!! Thanks CarloSW2 :)
You saved me time with my GIMP, and did it better than I would. My wife has seen your pic and hasn't said "No" yet, which is good. To me, the car just plain looks better. The only thing she asked about is the rear view through the kammy. I think that if we ever do get that far, it will have to be shorter, say flush with the bumper, for parking reasons. Also, I'm not sure what the local law has to say about anything extending beyond the bumper, excluding a towing hook.
I'm starting to look around for materials to use for the grill block, mooncaps and skirts. Unfortunately, I don't think we have coroplast here, so I'll have to improvise. I'm wondering if I should totally block the lower grill, because next to the radiator is the intercooler. Would blocking it give me a drop in performance?

Neat looking vehicle you bought, Adam. Will your driving be mostly city, highway or some combination?

If you search Tasdrouille's posts, I believe he has addressed a previous question about a grille block and the intercooler on his diesel VW.

Piwoslaw -

I told you I liked the Peugeot 307, :D .

I agree about the limit to the parking bumper (I applied that rule for my car's computer mock-up also). When I apply the bumper-limit rule, look at what happens :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...3&d=1227818352

The "side-slant" of the rear light assembly *extends* up "into" the kamm-back naturally. What an excellent design accident!

CarloSW2