Wash & Wax experiment

[exponent]

I'm going to buy a bar of detailers clay and thoroughly wash and wax my eclipse. I haven't made a final determination on which wax I will use. However, I'm going try and find out what the Nascar guys (and some of the World Of Outlaws sprint car guys) use to wax their race cars. I never would have thought of this, but I remembered seeing Steve Kinser (World of Outlaws) sprint being waxed before a race.

It can't hurt to try, right?

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by exponent

It can't hurt to try, right?

Be careful, you might get some elbow grease on the car...

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

Well it might be worth a tenth of a second a lap at 200mph.

[GasSavers_landon]

No, it will not hurt. I don't think it will help your mileage. At least your car will look nice. I know air race planes are waxed for performance, but they move a bit faster than your Mits.

[JanGeo]

I keep my xB pretty clean and polished with RejeX which is used on Jet aircraft and I notice very high mileage readings when it is freshly polished - higher than usual. It sure feels a lot slipperier with a fresh application of the RejeX too. The bottle will not stay on the hood - just slides off - and the hood is fairly level.

[1cheap1]

I think somewhere on TV a study was done about clean v dirty. It may have been Shell that ran it to tout there gas cleaner additive. Anyway they kept one car washed and waxed and the other just hosed off. Over the length of the trial (2000 mile?) the clean car did get better mileage by 1 to 2 mpg. This does make a difference in my opinion. If you run you hand over a very clean and waxed car the surface is very smooth. One that is clean but not waxed is ruff, you can feel the drag. This drag resists the wind and creates some drag.
I keep my car as clean as possible and smooth as possible. It may only help a little but every little bit helps.

[exponent]

I'm thinking the benefit won't be reached until 40mph+ I'm hoping to be able to squeeze another mile or two per hour out of my car with the windows down. or at least my windows cracked and my sunroof cracked. This way, the venturi effect of wind passing over my sunroof (which is only open in the back) will help to pull air through the cracked windows.

Its probably a stretch in physics, but I'm going to try it. The car could use waxed anyways.

[R.I.D.E.]

Dont think it will help to wax the primer on mine. I know my buddy who is going to paint it would be very upset, and I would have to work a lot more to get it ready for paint.

Once its painted I'll keep a good coat of wax on it and see if it helps.

regards
gary

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

I seriously doubt that waxing a car is going to make a significant difference, mileagewise. That being said, it will make the car prettier, making you want to go for a nice, long drive down some pretty road to a place you really enjoy. You will be enjoying the ride, so you might drive just a bit slower than you normally do to and from work. Because the car is a little shinier than usual, you will have a smile on your face, and will be less subject to being pissed off by other drivers, lowering the level of anger on the highway, and helping others get better mileage themselves. Because of all this, that trip will probably get you a bit better mileage than usual, but it won't be strictly because of the wax....

[theholycow]

LOL....but you'll be using more gas than usual, because you took a trip you otherwise wouldn't have taken.