Thrumpy :: 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage DE (Garage entry)

[spacester]

you out some foam in the grill?
do you need it? looks like you life somewhere the wheater is hot

[3dplane]

Wow! Good eye!

Sorry I did not catch your reply sooner.

Yes I stuffed foam strips in the giant openings of lower grill but I left some areas open. (maybe 90% blocking).

You are also correct, I live in warm climate Florida. However it got "very cold" here in the past few days. ( cold here means you have frost on your house's roof in the morning! I know Canadian guys are laughing now )

The car has no problem warming up quick in the morning but I did it for aerodynamic reasons.

I hypermile when I drive and the mirage does not coast as well as my old car. Partly because it is much lighter,and partly because it has a larger frontal area than my old car.(94 mazda protege with aerodynamic modifications)

This bugged me so I did that in 5 minutes. I can not feel a difference in coasting but I know it's there.

[fifteenwindow]

Your MPG is inspirational, 3D. What foam strips did you use for the grill/where did you get them? Any other mods hiding in your car?

Very nice work, thanks for sharing.

[3dplane]

Your MPG is inspirational, 3D. What foam strips did you use for the grill/where did you get them? Any other mods hiding in your car?

Very nice work, thanks for sharing.

Hi fifteen thanks! The MPG comes from me hypermiling the snot out of this thing. I'm still not happy with the coasting performance of the little mirage at higher speeds so I will be working on some wheel covers if I can keep it presentable looking, and possibly other mods.

(My old mazda weighed more and was aero modded so it spoiled me with how well it coasted. And sofar I'm having a hard time beating it's MPGs with the mirage!)

The foam is the soft sponge kind (not the white insulation) and it came in a box protecting a headliner on it's way to the dealership I work at. So I saved the foam blocks (about 10 of them) for whatever future use. If you lived closer I would give you some

As soon as I find suitable sheet plastic to make a nicer/stealthier grill block,the foam will come out.

Looks like we have identical cars down to the color,maybe they are brothers or sisters. VIN number might be close at the end!

Cheers!

[zefke]

Hi, I like your homemade wheel covers for better aero Do your brakes still get enough cooling air? They look pretty closed and airtight....

cheers
Paul

[3dplane]

Hi Paul! Thanks! As much as I use the brakes,they get more than enough airflow. I could only see it being an issue overheating if I were to descend from a high mountain,car fully loaded.

Even then I would probably attempt coming down using engine braking (5 speed)

Thanks!

[Donut]

it's always a pleasure to read about your new fill-ups. I wish I could come a little closer to your mileage, at the moment I am drifting around in the low 40 MPG.
It would be great, if you shared some of your tricks or provided us with some tutorial videos.

keep up this nice driving.

[3dplane]

Hi Donut! Thanks!

I see you got a manual.That is a good start! You have snow on the pictures of the car,that is not so good

As far as tricks go, I drive mostly highways and doing a lot of EOC. The mirage is so light that it does not want to coast as good as I'd like. So I do something that should be against good MPGs.

I carry junk in the trunk! About 100 lbs of tools,extra jump battery etc.

It extends my coasts on the highway so I don't have to re-bump that often.
Yes I know it takes more fuel to accelerate something heavier but I still think it works out better on highway.

In city traffic lighter would be better.

If traffic allows me to do so, and I'm not in a hurry,I will coast down to very low speeds before restarting.
(say accelerate to 55 MPH and coast down to 30 MPH in neutral.)

I accelerate from a stop with the ECO light remaining on from third gear up.(in first and second it is not on).

If I find a slow driver on my way, I will stay behind them,leaving plenty of room ahead of me for anyone to pass me only,as not to force anyone to have to pass two vehicles at once.

However around here speeders just catch up from behind and then they will not pass. No matter the opportunities to pass.

If a tailgater bugs me I either pull over there,or get to the next stop sign,cross the road and then pull over to let them by.

Basically I drive gentle and run the engine as little as possible.

Then for aerodynamics the grill block, wheel covers, slightly lowered front end and the passenger mirror folded in has to be helping.

Last week I had a personal trip record. Had to go to my uncle 12 miles away driving into crazy 25-30 MPH wind.

Got 56 MPG going that way. I could hardly wait to see what I get going back home down wind. The trip back came to 92.7 MPG

with the same amount of hypermiling effort as on the way there.



Also after fillup I left the trip average MPG ("A") in the seventies and reset trip "B" like usual and after the 10 mile trip home the range display went to 630 miles. Never seen it go past 590 miles shown.



If traffic would allow us,we could get really good numbers. It only takes one car behind us to ruin a good trip

Thanks!

[fifteenwindow]

If hypermiling were an olympic sport, you'd be on top of the podium.

Amazing work, as usual. Thanks for sharing.