Team Leftover Bananas!
 

Thought I'd start a post for the team! Private messages can be a pain sometimes ;) Anyway, thought this might make things easy for us :)

Current Standing:
New cycle starting!
"The Leftover Bananas"

Current Members:

• Team Captain: OdieTurbo - Confirmed - The_Last_SL1
• bbgobie - Not Confirmed - Black Chariot
• brucepick - Confirmed - Sven - Volvo 240 Wagon
• rvanengen - Confirmed - Mercedes 190e 2.6L 5-Speed
• Rick Rae - Confirmed - 2000 VW Cabrio

And to start things off, I've got a few things to do:

• Get that darn air dam installed!
• Remove the passenger side mirror.
• Try to use less A/C.

Anyone else have some things they want to get done for the next challenge?

Heh-heh, I'd like to get my air dam back from my buddy who's cloning it in giberflass. It's a spare-time project. He has a wife and a baby and a house so you can guess how much spare time he has!

Meanwhile, I'm using a big temporary coroplast air dam ala NASCAR which needs reconstruction every week or so.

And I'd like to get my front end cleaned up. Functionally better than stock now but it looks ugly. Really.

Not sure, but I could swear I get bet better milliage after a car wash?

It's the hydro-delta vector effect.
Even better than flux capacitors.

I'm serious!

I know it doesnt make much sense. But i've had a few tanks where i've really struggled. Seems to corrolate to the weeks I dont wash my car!
gonna wash this weekend and see how it goes next week.

This would be a tough ABA Test!

I was just having some fun - sorry.
Ya never know, maybe there's an actual connection between a clean car and FE.

I shouldn't talk, I hardly ever wash mine.

You mentioned the difficulties in doing ABA testing.
That brings some thoughts to mind, but we don't want any mud-slinging here!

Seriously, I hope it all goes well.

Who knows? Maybe when my car is clean the sun warms up the black paint faster?

Or as you said, the hydro-delta vector effect!

Well, OdieTurbo made the questionable decision to dub me a Leftover Banana, so greets to everyone. I don't know how much I can add to the fight but at least I'll try not to embarrass the team. :D

I've read the rules and have a general idea of how the FE Challenge works, but don't hesitate to throw out a "Hey Rick, don't forget to _______" here and there at least until I get in the rhythm of this. I don't want to miss any deadlines or stomp any rules.

Regarding things to get done, I installed an air dam a couple of weeks ago but haven't had time for any coast-down tests yet. The car seems to be coasting better at higher speeds but that may be placebo effect, as I haven't identified a definite FE change yet. I think what might be happening is, I'm keeping a constant TPS reading on a regular route and the reduced drag is resulting in slightly higher speed, canceling out the potential MPG increase. Anyway, I want to get some solid tests on this as soon as I can, because I think the dam needs to be shortened a little to be optimum.

It'll be a while before I can get to it, but I also want to slap on some rough cardboard rear wheel skirts to get preliminary numbers for that mod.

And, once the weather cools off a little I'll block off more of the grille.

Non-mod-wise, I'm currently working on adjusting my driving style to take better advantage of fuel cutoff.

Rick

Welcome to the team!