---Tape on my wheel wells----

[Darlo]

OH and I also took off the sun visors.......

[sasquatch]

^ did you also take the change out of the ash tray? its about the same weight lol....

[Aaronbrook37]

Eating breakfast is bad for fuel economy!

[Darlo]

individually they dont weigh much, but all together I shed about 50-60lbs in total (havent weighed it all yet)

[sasquatch]

what you should look in to is getting a wideband and a safc... if you get the wideband i have (zeitronix zt-2) it has this thing that "fools" the ecu in to THINKING the motor is running rich, so it takes out a tiny bit of fuel untill the zt2 tells it to stop... its quite neat it can also go the other way and make it run rich, but that would be bad for your mpg... and if you got a "safc" to adjust your maf signal you could tune the afr's leaner to get better mpg's its all very easy if you know how to read the gauges and tune it to get it to do what you want

[skeeters_keeper]

Saving weight will help you with around town mpgs where accelerating/decelerating extra mass takes more energy.

But on the hwy once your car is up to speed weight will affect the mpgs very little. Thats when its all about aero. My best mpg tank in the last 100k miles of driving festivas was on a trip from PA to VA - two people, and hundreds of pounds of stuff in the back of the car (at least 6 boxes full of books, etc). The rear tires were tucked inside the fenderwells from all the weight. I got 53 mpg. I can attribute this to a few things: I was following my dad, who was driving the moving truck, which helped reduce drag on the festy a bunch. We were only going about 55mph the whole time - once again, less drag. We were driving at night - cool pavement = less rolling resistance. And finally, all that extra weight put the car closer to the ground - less drag.

[Aaronbrook37]

Saving weight will help you with around town mpgs where accelerating/decelerating extra mass takes more energy.

But on the hwy once your car is up to speed weight will affect the mpgs very little. Thats when its all about aero. My best mpg tank in the last 100k miles of driving festivas was on a trip from PA to VA - two people, and hundreds of pounds of stuff in the back of the car (at least 6 boxes full of books, etc). The rear tires were tucked inside the fenderwells from all the weight. I got 53 mpg. I can attribute this to a few things: I was following my dad, who was driving the moving truck, which helped reduce drag on the festy a bunch. We were only going about 55mph the whole time - once again, less drag. We were driving at night - cool pavement = less rolling resistance. And finally, all that extra weight put the car closer to the ground - less drag.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbzouFaMJU4&t=0m16s

[skeeters_keeper]

Dude I love Bill Nye... lol.

[Aaronbrook37]

Dude I love Bill Nye... lol.

"Inertia is a property of matter" was my point.

[Darlo]

I completely agree.....I was aware that the weight reduction would mainly affect the city driving. It was so ironic that you even brought it up now, as last night my friend and I were discussing the EXACT same thing, along with the physics that goes along with it! He is an engineer too, so that helps , I am but a nobody, a little Amospheric Science student......

[MonkeyGein]

wow, zombie thread here

did tyhe duct tape help?

i've been thinking of corrugated plastic over the front, plexi from the bumper to the hood (with rad hole cut out), corrugated plastic over the wipers, painters tape over gaps, rear wheel skirts (with corrugated plastic), and doing the saucer sled for the front wheels.

[Basement_Modder]

Since its already been bumped...

I think I would do the following for a truly "super-efficient" festiva.

Shave door handles, and completely fill in gas cap. Put a pushbutton under the car for lowering the power window so that you can still get in. (also would require re-wiring the voltage source for the window motors to allot lowering without ignition on). Re-locate the gas cap into the inside of the car near the hatch, so you have to lift the hatch to fill up. Put an aluminum shielded underbody on the car, arc-welded in place for efficiency, or removable for convenience/ repair. Remove the backseat. Remove the spare tire+jack. (Just make sure your tires are good every day or two). Weld on a rear wheel-well shield like the tape was in the first post here. Put flat hubcaps with all holes filled in on the rims, made as flush with the sidewall of the tire as possible. Bonus points for only using 1 or 2 of the wheel bolts on it and filling the rest in.

[FestYboy]

[quote=Basement_Modder;408575]Since its already been bumped...

I think I would do the following for a truly "super-efficient" festiva.

Shave door handles, and completely fill in gas cap. Legal Put a pushbutton under the car for lowering the power window so that you can still get in. (also would require re-wiring the voltage source for the window motors to allot lowering without ignition on).not really legal, but not illegal Re-locate the gas cap into the inside of the car near the hatch, so you have to lift the hatch to fill up.totaly NOT legal Put an aluminum shielded underbody on the car, arc-welded in place for efficiency, or removable for convenience/ repair.needs to be removable for oil changes silly!!! Remove the backseat. Remove the spare tire+jack. (Just make sure your tires are good every day or two). Weld on a rear wheel-well shield like the tape was in the first post here. Put flat hubcaps with all holes filled in on the rims, made as flush with the sidewall of the tire as possible. Bonus points for only using 1 or 2 of the wheel bolts on it and filling the rest in. UMMM here's where i put my foot down. NO!!!! you can't have just 2 let alone 1 lug bolt holding on the wheel, you might as well just push your car off a 500ft cliff with you in it along with all your loved ones. that's just a stupid idea[/quote]

corrected....

[MonkeyGein]

some of that stuff is too much. shaving handls and gas door? just tape over them duh

[Safety Guy]

Folks, let's also consider what works well with the least effort and cost vs. what may theoretically help a little bit but will cost a lot of time, money and effort.

As for wipers, they are located at the base of the windshield, which I believe is a high pressure area that will not respond well to aero mods.

Getting rid of the top grille holes by covering them up should work well, as the radiator will still get plenty of moving air from the lower open areas. As long as your radiator is healthy, this should not be a problem.

Reducing weight is nice, but taking out the rear seat is simple, no-cost, and can be reversed if necessary, saving around 30 pounds or so. Taking all your interior out will be much more work and result in more interior noise with little weight reduction.

Removing sun visors? Don't know about you, but I use them quite a bit for blocking the sun!

I like the rear wheel well skirts and the front end smoothing. I plan to do some of this as well.

Karl