6G Celicas Forums

HAHAHAHA - lookin for that FB like button again. We had a suburban at one point and from drafting a truck we got 26 mpg out of that thing lol.

I'm pretty active on ecomodder and definitely one of those freaks who drives around with plastic all over my car to get better MPG. But I agree the celiac is too pretty to do that to. I have a GT convertible that I keep covered and take out once a week for fun. My daily driver is a geo metro that looks like a spaceship but gets around 50mpg. It's weird to say but it's actually as much fun of a car in a totally different way. With the Celica all my mods are for style or performance, with the geo, all the mods cost next to nothing and they are only for function and economy. At any rate here are some things that might be interesting for this discussion.

The three mods I would recommend most for saving gas without sacrificing image are:
1) Grill Block or partial Grill Block. The front bumper openings are designed for the worst case scenario (towing uphill in the desert) but under less stressful situations you don't need nearly that much air going into your engine bay. Think of pushing an open cup through water, that's what your bumper mouth is doing to the air. You can block a good portion of the grill and it forces air around the car with much less drag. Best way to do it is is install some instrumentation to monitor your coolant temp (a scanguage II would work) then block some of the grill with cardboard. Keep driving normally and blocking more of the grill until you see the temp rising then back off a bit. This mod also functions to help your car get warmed up quicker and it is most efficient once warmed up. Once you find the right amount to block you can make something pretty like a colored plastic block with home depot mesh across the whole bumper gap to hid your partial block.
2) the belly pan. Our cars are smooth and pretty on the top and sides but under the car is all kinds of stuff for air to get snagged on. For the geo I just bought a 4x8 sheet of coreplast, trimmed it to shape and mounted it under the car. This can be very effective. The other way to get the same effect is install a front lip that extends as low as your lowest hanging suspension, spare tires, whatever hangs down.
As far as dimpling this... Air behaves weirdly and in many cases the air under the car gets pressurized because the bumper pushes a good portion of the air down and the rest goes over the car. when incoming air hits the pressurized air a lot of it swerves left or right toward the wheelwells. It's weird I've seen it in wind tunnel smoke tests. That makes me think that the dimples may not be as effective on a belly pan.
3) the BIGGEST change you can make is driving habits. The Scanguage is awesome, it plugs into the OBDII port and gives you instant readings for mpg rate as well as avg mpg for the trip. It's like a video game trying to set a high score and you can adjust your driving to get the most significant gains.

There's other things of course, the geo has a kill switch so I coast with the engine off a lot but our celicas would lose power steering and possibly brakes so that might not be a good idea. Pulse and glide is a counterintuitive driving method that can save you a ton of gas. It works like this:
Say you get 22 mpg going a steady 55
You could drive for 55 miles and get 22 mpg
now say you drive that same 55 miles constantly flooring it to 60 then putting it in neutral and coasting down to 50
Assume it takes the same amount of time to coast down as it does to accelerate (I'm sure our fast cars would actually coast longer than the acceleration, but for easy math lets say it's equal)
Now say you get only 10mpg when you're pedal to the metal, BUT coasting in neutral your car is at idle and probably gets 50mpg.
So in 55 miles you would spend 27.5 miles getting 10mpg and 27.5 miles getting 50MPG
Average those together and you get 30MPG
And because your average speed between 50 and 60 is 55 it takes you the same amount of time.
You win 8mpg!

The real numbers might be different but the concept actually works, its so weird but try it, you might be surprised.

btw what on earth is making you drive 1000 mi / week?

Ahh ecomodder!! That site gave me wonders on how to get good fuel economy.

Driving with load would be helpful as well. Slow down uphill, coast on downhill!

Not really eco but better air flow.
My mods consists of:
custom full rear diffuser, custom full front end splitter undertray, full under mid panels.
Loads of Carbon and FRP replacement body panels to loose weigh and maybe blanking out my 2 high beams but only after finishing combining the headlights into the 2 outer ones.

@ ACCCELICA
Thanks for the info man! I've actually scoured that site a lot but always wondered what would actually be best for the car. I just bought another one of these things and it's getting built from the ground up with cool/gas milege mods that will look stock for sure. And that pulse driving thing.... wow, yea, very odd in deed.
But i'm driving 1000mi every ten days because i'm currently about 180mi from home working at Honda until I go back to school. 360mi round trip one weekend, 40 mi. driving at home during the weekend, 100mi to work and back during the week plus another 360 round trip the next weekend and another 40 mi driving around. The cycle then starts over at 100 mi during the week, but thats nothing compared to the rest of it haha



Have you seen any improvement on mileage?. I'm thinking you should easily see over 31 regularly assuming 5sfe/5spd

Dont know yet becasue my engine is out and the car's not ready yet.
Before I was getting around 30mpg anyway if I was driving without a heavy foot. Thats after a really good service.

Wow, I have never got that. i've got a 5s auto and with a slightly heavy foot i'll see 28.xx sometimes as low as 26.xx 30+ is 90% highway at 70 flat if I'm lucky

vincent's doggy's underpanel is high quality no doubt as some pics that culpable posted on the install. But how about making something of a cheaper material solely to providing less drag on the front under part of the car??? fiberglass was mentioned before or something of plastic similarities... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS8sDkjk0GM



also reposting this pics





whatthe!!


This post has been edited by BonzaiCelica: Dec 31, 2011 - 4:43 PM

I am also more active on Ecomodders. So far I've added a partial grill block, front belly pan, rear pan from suspension to the bumper, and lastly, I covered up where the downpipe comes past the subframe. Its hard to tell now that its winter, but last tank had me at constant 32mpg. I use coroplast sheets I got for free from a sign place. 1/8" is plenty thick. If you block the grill, you can use flat pieces with a round cut to match the edges pretty well.

I got 32 mpg without any of that work...

i want these. where do i find them?

those a pretty rare headlight covers...

you also live in the FLAT land. Where I am I have nothing but ^^^^ mountains. I've been thinking about doing some aeropanels myself.

What doyour panels look like on the car?

i would really really like to have them. price is of no concern

are they toyota dealer? or aftermarket company?

This post has been edited by Tigawoods: Dec 31, 2011 - 12:51 PM

Headlight Covers


Note: Made of durable acrylic.

Part Number: 08814-14020C

hope that helps sumhow

This post has been edited by Neon90424: Dec 31, 2011 - 1:55 PM

aftermarket I suppose.... custom made ones and then a group buy???



If you take a look here you can see the headlights bulg out in a circular shape more than needed. This would affect airflow a bit. It would be best to make them as flat as possible like that of the headlights covers on the orange wilwood celica.



This post has been edited by BonzaiCelica: Apr 26, 2012 - 8:47 PM

Can we get some pics please??

im making a wtb thread. I havent wanted anything so badly for my car since the diffuser.

Ja Mike, they're pretty nifty. I'd like a set myself, as I imagine it would provide a tangible aero bonus.

Sure! Let me take some...


Part of the front


Thats the rear.

I'll take more and get some better ones.

This post has been edited by RobbMeeX: Jan 13, 2012 - 3:35 PM