Go Back   EcoModder Forum > EcoModding > Aerodynamics
Register Now
 Register Now
 

Reply  Post New Thread
 
Submit Tools LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 11-27-2007, 11:23 PM   #1 (permalink)
Batman Junior
 
MetroMPG's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: 1000 Islands, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 22,513

Blackfly - '98 Geo Metro
Team Metro
Last 3: 70.09 mpg (US)

MPGiata - '90 Mazda Miata
90 day: 52.71 mpg (US)

Even Fancier Metro - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage top spec
90 day: 70.75 mpg (US)

Appliance car - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage ES (base)
90 day: 60.16 mpg (US)
Thanks: 4,058
Thanked 6,957 Times in 3,602 Posts
Ford Fusion aero mods: Cd from 0.34 to 0.21

OK, so it's a Bonneville car. But it's instructive about the basics what to do to improve aero:



- grille blocking
- smooth wheel covers
- narrower tires
- deleted mirrors
- deleted wipers
- lowering, in conjunction with...
- full undertray
- rear decklid extension (improved roof to trailing edge angle)

__________________
Project MPGiata! Mods for getting 50+ MPG from a 1990 Miata
Honda mods: Ecomodding my $800 Honda Fit 5-speed beater
Mitsu mods: 70 MPG in my ecomodded, dirt cheap, 3-cylinder Mirage.
Ecodriving test: Manual vs. automatic transmission MPG showdown



EcoModder
has launched a forum for the efficient new Mitsubishi Mirage
www.MetroMPG.com - fuel efficiency info for Geo Metro owners
www.ForkenSwift.com - electric car conversion on a beer budget
  Reply With Quote
Alt Today
Popular topics

Other popular topics in this forum...

   
Old 11-27-2007, 11:24 PM   #2 (permalink)
Batman Junior
 
MetroMPG's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: 1000 Islands, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 22,513

Blackfly - '98 Geo Metro
Team Metro
Last 3: 70.09 mpg (US)

MPGiata - '90 Mazda Miata
90 day: 52.71 mpg (US)

Even Fancier Metro - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage top spec
90 day: 70.75 mpg (US)

Appliance car - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage ES (base)
90 day: 60.16 mpg (US)
Thanks: 4,058
Thanked 6,957 Times in 3,602 Posts
PS - judging from the photos at ABG, the exterior sheetmetal is stock. Nothing else is.

PPS - It's a hydrogen fuel cell powerplant.
__________________
Project MPGiata! Mods for getting 50+ MPG from a 1990 Miata
Honda mods: Ecomodding my $800 Honda Fit 5-speed beater
Mitsu mods: 70 MPG in my ecomodded, dirt cheap, 3-cylinder Mirage.
Ecodriving test: Manual vs. automatic transmission MPG showdown



EcoModder
has launched a forum for the efficient new Mitsubishi Mirage
www.MetroMPG.com - fuel efficiency info for Geo Metro owners
www.ForkenSwift.com - electric car conversion on a beer budget
  Reply With Quote
Old 11-27-2007, 11:24 PM   #3 (permalink)
Batman Junior
 
MetroMPG's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: 1000 Islands, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 22,513

Blackfly - '98 Geo Metro
Team Metro
Last 3: 70.09 mpg (US)

MPGiata - '90 Mazda Miata
90 day: 52.71 mpg (US)

Even Fancier Metro - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage top spec
90 day: 70.75 mpg (US)

Appliance car - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage ES (base)
90 day: 60.16 mpg (US)
Thanks: 4,058
Thanked 6,957 Times in 3,602 Posts
Quantified:

0.34 - original Cd

-.08 - lowering (that's massive! and it's the only time I've seen it quantified)
-.025 - full grille block
-.015 - mirrors deletion (doesn't mention wipers though)
-.01 - full belly pan

I suspect they couldn't mod the door handles or add skirts in order to keep within the "stock" definition for bodywork. Probably a class thing.

EDIT: the slide isn't exactly comprehensive. It doesn't address the decklid extension or the smooth wheel covers...
__________________
Project MPGiata! Mods for getting 50+ MPG from a 1990 Miata
Honda mods: Ecomodding my $800 Honda Fit 5-speed beater
Mitsu mods: 70 MPG in my ecomodded, dirt cheap, 3-cylinder Mirage.
Ecodriving test: Manual vs. automatic transmission MPG showdown



EcoModder
has launched a forum for the efficient new Mitsubishi Mirage
www.MetroMPG.com - fuel efficiency info for Geo Metro owners
www.ForkenSwift.com - electric car conversion on a beer budget
  Reply With Quote
The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to MetroMPG For This Useful Post:
aerohead (08-13-2011), California98Civic (08-09-2011), jime57 (03-06-2011)
Old 11-27-2007, 11:26 PM   #4 (permalink)
Batman Junior
 
MetroMPG's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: 1000 Islands, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 22,513

Blackfly - '98 Geo Metro
Team Metro
Last 3: 70.09 mpg (US)

MPGiata - '90 Mazda Miata
90 day: 52.71 mpg (US)

Even Fancier Metro - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage top spec
90 day: 70.75 mpg (US)

Appliance car - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage ES (base)
90 day: 60.16 mpg (US)
Thanks: 4,058
Thanked 6,957 Times in 3,602 Posts
Why is the original car's aerodynamics so terrible to begin with? Some thoughts...

- High off the ground . It's as high (or higher, depending on the source) as my hatchback Flea!

- The bodywork around the rear wheel arch is terrible. The wheel sticks out dramatically - looks like the edge of the tire is exposed for as much as as 2/3 of its height. Which means any attempt to boat-tail the bodywork after that point is a wasted effort since the air is already disturbed (and further churned up by the chunky alloys).

- the wheel arches are also pretty large, with a big gap between the tire & bodywork.
__________________
Project MPGiata! Mods for getting 50+ MPG from a 1990 Miata
Honda mods: Ecomodding my $800 Honda Fit 5-speed beater
Mitsu mods: 70 MPG in my ecomodded, dirt cheap, 3-cylinder Mirage.
Ecodriving test: Manual vs. automatic transmission MPG showdown



EcoModder
has launched a forum for the efficient new Mitsubishi Mirage
www.MetroMPG.com - fuel efficiency info for Geo Metro owners
www.ForkenSwift.com - electric car conversion on a beer budget
  Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to MetroMPG For This Useful Post:
aerohead (08-13-2011)
Old 11-27-2007, 11:27 PM   #5 (permalink)
Batman Junior
 
MetroMPG's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: 1000 Islands, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 22,513

Blackfly - '98 Geo Metro
Team Metro
Last 3: 70.09 mpg (US)

MPGiata - '90 Mazda Miata
90 day: 52.71 mpg (US)

Even Fancier Metro - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage top spec
90 day: 70.75 mpg (US)

Appliance car - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage ES (base)
90 day: 60.16 mpg (US)
Thanks: 4,058
Thanked 6,957 Times in 3,602 Posts
If you look through the ABG Fusion 999 gallery, you can see they used wheels with a different offset (and narrower tires) that let them completely "hide" them (from airflow from the front) within the wheel wells.

Obviously the overall shape of the car is fine if they got it down to .21. It's on the details where Ford messed up.
__________________
Project MPGiata! Mods for getting 50+ MPG from a 1990 Miata
Honda mods: Ecomodding my $800 Honda Fit 5-speed beater
Mitsu mods: 70 MPG in my ecomodded, dirt cheap, 3-cylinder Mirage.
Ecodriving test: Manual vs. automatic transmission MPG showdown



EcoModder
has launched a forum for the efficient new Mitsubishi Mirage
www.MetroMPG.com - fuel efficiency info for Geo Metro owners
www.ForkenSwift.com - electric car conversion on a beer budget
  Reply With Quote
Old 03-22-2008, 05:31 PM   #6 (permalink)
rookie
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: California
Posts: 6
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Fusion 999 aero

If you look at the pictures in the ABG 999 gallery referenced above, the front nose piece is pretty much completely smooth - the frontal features are apparently decaled, a la NASCAR. A production Fusion, even with grill blocks, still wouldn't be this sleek. However, the rest of the body appears to be standard production pieces, which interests me - the front fenders have a sharp crease at the top leading down to the nose, as does my Focus. Apparently there isn't much of an aero loss with this, since it would have been relatively easy to put a mild radius on the fenders/nose to eliminate this character line & smooth out the airflow even more. I wonder how much the fences on top of the roof are worth, too...

Last edited by technoshark; 03-22-2008 at 05:38 PM..
  Reply With Quote
Old 03-22-2008, 05:58 PM   #7 (permalink)
Batman Junior
 
MetroMPG's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: 1000 Islands, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 22,513

Blackfly - '98 Geo Metro
Team Metro
Last 3: 70.09 mpg (US)

MPGiata - '90 Mazda Miata
90 day: 52.71 mpg (US)

Even Fancier Metro - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage top spec
90 day: 70.75 mpg (US)

Appliance car - '14 Mitsubishi Mirage ES (base)
90 day: 60.16 mpg (US)
Thanks: 4,058
Thanked 6,957 Times in 3,602 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by technoshark View Post
If you look at the pictures in the ABG 999 gallery referenced above, the front nose piece is pretty much completely smooth
Good point. Much smoother than stock, too.

Here's a good pic that shows it - note the lovely radius...
http://www.autobloggreen.com/photos/...esting/313361/

The fences on the roof aren't there to contribute to reduced Cd - they're safety features meant to prevent lift from airflow across the roof should the car slew sideways at high speed.

This Mazda doesn't appear to have them, for example. And as a result we get a nice look at its wonderfully smooth undertray... several times!

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/v/SWgWk_evROk[/YOUTUBE]
__________________
Project MPGiata! Mods for getting 50+ MPG from a 1990 Miata
Honda mods: Ecomodding my $800 Honda Fit 5-speed beater
Mitsu mods: 70 MPG in my ecomodded, dirt cheap, 3-cylinder Mirage.
Ecodriving test: Manual vs. automatic transmission MPG showdown



EcoModder
has launched a forum for the efficient new Mitsubishi Mirage
www.MetroMPG.com - fuel efficiency info for Geo Metro owners
www.ForkenSwift.com - electric car conversion on a beer budget
  Reply With Quote
Old 03-22-2008, 08:35 PM   #8 (permalink)
Cd
Ultimate Fail
 
Cd's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Austin,Texas
Posts: 3,585
Thanks: 2,872
Thanked 1,121 Times in 679 Posts
Metro, after looking at the gallery, I assumed wrongly that they ran at Bonneville with those stock door handles.
The door handles were flush at Bonneville.
  Reply With Quote
Old 03-22-2008, 10:58 PM   #9 (permalink)
rookie
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: California
Posts: 6
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
That's a great flat full-length underbody pan on that Mazda - nice of him to flip his car & show us.
  Reply With Quote
Old 03-28-2008, 05:31 PM   #10 (permalink)
Master EcoModder
 
aerohead's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Sanger,Texas,U.S.A.
Posts: 15,861
Thanks: 23,922
Thanked 7,207 Times in 4,640 Posts
lowering

Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroMPG View Post
Quantified:

0.34 - original Cd

-.08 - lowering (that's massive! and it's the only time I've seen it quantified)
-.025 - full grille block
-.015 - mirrors deletion (doesn't mention wipers though)
-.01 - full belly pan

I suspect they couldn't mod the door handles or add skirts in order to keep within the "stock" definition for bodywork. Probably a class thing.

EDIT: the slide isn't exactly comprehensive. It doesn't address the decklid extension or the smooth wheel covers...
This is the first ever for me time that the effect of lowering had been assigned a numerical value.Its new grist for the mill.

__________________
Photobucket album: http://s1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj622/aerohead2/
  Reply With Quote
Reply  Post New Thread


Thread Tools




Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Content Relevant URLs by vBSEO 3.5.2
All content copyright EcoModder.com