Metro aerodynamics

[jwxr7]

I like it. I hope it works out well for you. Might also keep the interior cooler?

Thanks, And I was thinking that too.

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

I wasn't sure which side was the good side .

Me either . There probably is no good side.

I also need to say that I love the packing tape I've been using, valuable for aero mods.

[MetroMPG]

I wish I had more to contribute to this thread. I've got a backlog of aero mods I want to do to the Fireflea, but the ForkenSwift is getting all my attention & time so far this summer.

EDIT: if I were driving the 'flea more, I'd have added incentive to be working on it, but the beater bike has pretty much displaced it. The thought of selling it has crossed my mind. (But I probably won't... not yet anyway.)

[jwxr7]

The thought of selling it has crossed my mind.

That would be a sad day , but if you do and you want to put the original tranny back in, I would love to get a taller trans to put in my car . Actually I should call around to the local junkyards and see if they have a 1.3l 5spd geo variant I could get a trans out of. That could be my next big mod .

[MetroMPG]

It's funny: I know where there's another 1.3L 5-spd Swift hb rusting away in someone's yard not 2 km from where I'm sitting. I ride past it regularly. While searching for a donor ForkenSwift car, I stopped in twice to see if he'd sell it, but the reality of its value (ie. parts/scrap) hasn't yet penetrated his brain .

[jwxr7]

Okay, I got my hands on a couple types of angle finders. One uses straight edges and a protactor (kinda small) the other is a magntic base pointer that uses gravity to align the pointer to a circular degree scale. When you talk about the angle of the kammback panels, what is it with respect to? Like for the top piece, Is it to a level horizontal plane , or to the panel that it is coming off of (roof line)? Trouble is, the roof line is curved so it's hard to know the angle exactly unless you know where you should be trying to measure it . I feel I could be reducing the rear drag area more but don't want to go too far. A tuft test may be in order if I can round up helpers to do it .

[MetroMPG]

Yeah, this is tricky.

Any references I make are measured from the horizontal, and for angles which are actually curves, I try to estimate the average angle along the curve.

[jwxr7]

Any references I make are measured from the horizontal, and for angles which are actually curves, I try to estimate the average angle along the curve.

Okay, that helps . I just increased the angle of my top flap last night. From the horizontal it is about 12 -13 degrees. I am going to tape some string to the kammback before I leave work. The coroplast I am using is somewhat transparent so i will be able to see thru looking in my mirror to what is happening .

[jwxr7]

I did a solo tuft test on my way home from work. It looks like I have attatched flow all over the kammback (at least what I could see from the inside while driving). While I was at it, I tufted around my windshield wiper area. The deflector cover I made for my ds wiper is acting like a cowl. The tufts were being pulled down and under the cover. I removed it and think I may be better off without it. There didn't seem to be too much turbulence after the wiper (at least the tufts were pointing up the windshield). So a trade off, is it better to have a low pressure zone behind a small cowl or a smaller high pressure zone in front of the wiper parts?

Oh, and I put tufts on the back window too. They were motionless, just hanging by gravity. I also have good flow over my side window were my mirrors used to be . I may try it again with thinner tufts because the ones I used were pretty husky. Then I may get a more sensitive system going .