Rear mirror drag simulations

[Telemachos]

Here's a pretty interesting student project I came across investigating the aero effects of the rear-view mirrors on a Mercedes Benz A-Class.

(Can't post links yet, just google "Designing and Optimizing Side View
Mirrors" by Martin Olsson, 2011)

The quality of the study is student level, but it shows some interesting comparisons between different mirror mods and gives an estimate of a ~4% reduction in drag from mirror deletion.

What are your thoughts?

[mpg_numbers_guy]

I believe it. I once attempted mirror boattailing on my Civic and noticed a slight increase in fuel economy. I later removed them due to them falling apart: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post573116

[Telemachos]

Nice one! I had a similar idea of somehow vacuum molding clear "end caps" to attach on the trailing end of the mirrors. Sort of like your setup but shorter and fully closed.

Doesn't really help the fact that the wings on the i10 are MASSIVE and I might just be better off getting off the shelf slimmer ones.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

How would you see anything in the mirrors if they were fully enclosed?

The biggest problem with my setup was being unable to securely attach them without drilling into my car.

[Telemachos]

Clear PETG plastic or something like that, although it might cause some serious visibility issues from glare. Also not too keen on drilling into the mirror casings, but I might get my hands on a cheapo second-hand pair to experiment with :P

[mpg_numbers_guy]

I tried doing something similar with the clear plastic that I used (boattail the whole mirror), but 80% of the visibility was obstructed 80% of the time. Might as well just delete the mirrors and get even bigger gains rather than retain them with visibility that poor.