Enjoying this build and missing my 98 Neon.
I grew up seeing Neons, such neat little cars made not too far from where I grew up. Want to autocross one eventually just to say I have.
29.3 mpg last tank.
Maybe aero? I want 40, dammit!!!!
In all seriousness, im pleased with that if it consistently that tank to tank. But more is better, obviously.
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
block up the open fog light holes, get your tire pressures up... and pulse and glide
In reply to stafford1500 :
Really? The pnes in the front of the wheelwell openings, or the rectangle shaped under car in front of the tires?
If i can do cheap, easy, cosmetically appealing with legit gains, I'm all for it.
But doing opening blocks on the front bumper..... not so much. Just ugly in my eye. Love the acr look ive got going on.
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
The ones that fill in the wheel opening form the side view of the car. LIke old caddies...
They might no look great but they help with drag. Same with the brake duct openings mentioned up post. It all depends on how much you want mileage over your concern for looks.
I was going to mention those rear tire spats... but I figured they'd be a bridge too far
but, definitely front tire deflectors on the bottom of the front under tray
you could block the fogs with sign plastic, and paint it black... and it would be a lot less obvious. George Bruggenthies used to stuff stress balls into the brake duct openings of his Viper / 3000gt (?) on the transits of OneLap because of the mileage/sound improvement.
Other than tape, how would cloroplast be attached?
And would making the foglight holes buckets be more beneficial than open?
Cause im now seriously thinking about this....
if you want it "removeable"... tape is one way
if you built the coroplast plate up of a couple layers, you could glue in... ~4 (?) magnets, and then glue in corresponding magnets in the fog light holes
the shorter you can make the recess hole the better. turning it into a bucket is basically making it a parachute, but that parachute is better than dumping it into the mess of air that swirling everywhichway around the wheel
Awesome! Hadn't thought about magnetic attachment.
Factory used a 3 inch airdam completely vertical off the core support, about 12 inches behind the leading edge of the bumper. Would making it bigger, or doing a flat undertray from the bumper to core support with ducting for the radiator be better?
This guy was averaging high 40's with a 3-spd auto. Btw, "ecommoder aero" is one of my favorite google image searches and where 75% of my Challenge drag racing body ideas come from.
https://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/2000-dodge-neon-aero-mods-20741.html
That air dam you mention could be intended to get airflow through the radiator, so I'd be careful about going with a smooth pan from the bumper to the core support. I know our rallycross SRT4 tends to run hotter now that we added a skid plate that runs from the bumper to behind the trans. Instead, you could experiment with blocking off the grill and seeing how things go with coolant temp and mileage. Looks like the guy with the eco aero at least partially blocked his off (didn't go through the whole thread to see full progression) to get some gains.
Dusterbd13-michael said:In reply to maschinenbau :
That site appears to be a DEEP rabbit hole....
Indeed it is. Remember, drag force is directly related to the square of speed. Double the speed, quadruple the power required to overcome aero. Horsepower is expense, but coroplast and aluminum can be free. And free aero is free horsepower for about half of a quarter mile...
another thought on fog lights is to check and see if that hole is tapered as it goes back. If so, you can build up the coroplast again and sand it with an angle on the edge so that it wedges in if you push it in. The air should only ever push on it, so it won’t pop back out the front... outside of an accident.
re: radiators
the thing to keep in mind with radiators, and especially ducting them, is that when you duct them the exit becomes the most important part. The front is there to provide a clean flow and to slow it down so it has time to do its heat exchanging... but the exit determines the actual “draw”, so to speak.
probably the best thing would be to block the small upper slit, and extend the existing air dam down and outward. That way you make sure you’ve got air going to the radiator, but none going under the car. Don’t make the dam too rigid, that way it will “give” a bit with speed and not force too much air up to the radiator, and it will handle running into the random detritus that litters the road.
At the moment there is NO airdam on this one. Making one is top priority, as its running slightly warm at interstate speed. Hence the thoughts about ducting instead.
This is going to be fun experimenting with aero/economy/expense. New territory for me.
if that's the case, you might try one that can be positioned "vertical" one week and "horizontal" the next week... but you'll want to keep track of "average week temperature", maybe?
Its not really a beater until you wash it with superclean, dawn, and a green scrubbie.
Alignment-.5 camber, 1/8 toe in front. Oil change. Libe the hinges. Tighten the belts. Etc.
Ready for another week.
Air damn is SUPER inportant, best trick for neon cooling I have and works 99.5% of the time is window/graragedoor foam trim where rad meets core support, helps get the air through.
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