Prius 75-91mpg

[Nathan jones]

Merry christmas folks. Thanks. I was surprised today how heavy the rear door was, on carrying them guessed 18-20kg, maybe im strong as in fact its 34kg, so in total around 60kg will be saved on the door replacements. Its glued in to a point but will need more work later on, the skin is different shape to the shoulder parts, also theres brackets, switches and wiring to be removed, maybe tomorrow

[Nathan jones]

Made a new rear section, once its varnished with pu varnish or epoxy it will look neat

..neater than the current one

[Nathan jones]

..

[Nathan jones]

Hi guys, just checking in. The problem with the prius I'm having is chassis mass and net surface area both of which I cannot reduce. If I got a honda CR-Z, took it to bits completely and built a chassis from carbon fibre and redesigned the Cd I could achieve around 100mpg but also have improved social status, thoughts?

nb the Cd will still be about .27 it will also have two seats

[Nathan jones]

And handle better, the prius beat a tesla but swb would be sweet

[Ecky]

Pretty sure you can get a G1 Insight on the other side of the drip. I believe the chassis only weighs 350lbs, but it might actually be less. The engine weighs around 115lbs dry, probably close to half what a Prius engine weighs. It's all aluminum, has no pesky rear seats you'll just remove anyway, and delivers 100mpg US out of the box, as it comes from the factory.

I'm aware of one individual on Insight Central who has regular trips that peg the MPG computer at 150mpg, the highest it reads. Admittedly he has some rather extreme mods, such as deleting the front brakes to reduce weight and cut disc drag.

Food for thought.

[teoman]

Originally Posted by Ecky

I'm aware of one individual on Insight Central who has regular trips that peg the MPG computer at 150mpg, the highest it reads. Admittedly he has some rather extreme mods, such as deleting the front brakes to reduce weight and cut disc drag.
Food for thought.

That does not sound like a logical modification to me.

What next? Chop off both legs and an arm to reduce weight? Or remove the safety belts air bags and strip the dash to bare metal so you have a machine that automatically does that for you.

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by teoman

That does not sound like a logical modification to me.

What next? Chop off both legs and an arm to reduce weight? Or remove the safety belts air bags and strip the dash to bare metal so you have a machine that automatically does that for you.

Yeah, I agree. I think he has something like 5 of these cars, and on this one he also runs 100psi+ in the tires.

He gets 50%+ better fuel economy than any Insight I've ever seen, but the base car still does extraordinarily well.

[Nathan jones]

Thanks for your reply, I was looking for something sporty and bigger, although I do like the insight. Maybe your'e right, I can see 140-150 is possible. The CR-V is'nt perfect, 60/40 on weight and no cvt here but like the idea of a perfect work/race/social vehicle, having two cars is annoying

n.b also youre right about the mk1 it is aluminium and plastic, unbeatable really, also I remove most stuff but keep the brakes and steering

[elhigh]

Removing the rear brakes I can maybe understand, but the fronts? Holy smokes.

I've seen some people deriding ecomodders and hypermilers for unsafe practices, but I've never agreed with any of them until this moment.