Prius Aero Package

including shipping wordwide?

 

yes thats in france

 

haha

 

TO ALL - if you are gonna run the wheel covers all the time, you have to be careful about the cooling system of the brakes. these covers, (any covers that completely cover the rims) will cause a considerable reduction in air flow to cool the calipers/rotors and may/will cause brake fade, especially in severe downhill or longer braking periods. try to redirect air ducts so that air flow will be achieved from the inside of the rims.

just my 2 cents for your safety.

cheers

 

In a normal car this is true. In the Prius in normal driving the brakes are not used much. We verified the lack of wheel brake use of this weekend, One of the attendees at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Hybrid Group meetup had in infared video camera. He brought it because he wanted to see what the battery was putting out in the way of heat. He also took pics of the front wheels after a Prius pulled in after a 30 minute trip. The front wheels and brake disks had no heat registereing off of them. The front disk and wheel and the same temperature as the rest of the car. The Prius had just spent 30 minutes of all city dirving with 25-35 MHP speeds and several stop signs and lights. He has the pics. He said he would e-mail me a copy and if he does I will post them here.

 

To reinforce what bestmapman said, I have 135k miles on the original brakes. The pads and shoes have plenty of material left. I estimate 400k before I will need my first set of new pads / shoes.

 

To your door?
New Hybrid car?

Both not a true statement. Someone may be able to hold you to that "to your door" line, even if they are out of the country

Any data on MPG improvement with the full kit?
.

 

maybe do a test with long downhill driving? just for the facts!

 

Any hints on what is required for installation?

 

OK, i'm NOT here to debate things about brakes, etc, whatever. i'm just pointing out safety facts. I realize that our PRIUS' does regenerate the battery when you completely lift OFF the throttle, but here's the bottom line.............................

TOYOTA engineered the prius based on aerodynamics and fuel efficiency. IF it is more aerodymanic to completely cover the rims, I DO believe that TOYOTA would have done that.

with this modification, what i'm saying is that IT MAY cause the brakes to work harder under more heat. to those that posted many miles with the stock brakes, THUMBS UP. my question is........................DID YOU COVER UP THE WHEELS to get such a long lasting wear? if not, then it's something to consider.

that's all i'm posting. you dont get something for nothing, i'm SURE toyota considered that aerodynamic fact.

i'm NOT insulting or saying the body kit wont work, it might, but then it MIGHT cause the brakes to heat up more. in so-cal, it's sometimes in the triple digit mark in temperatures, going downhill on highway speeds of 60+ and having to use the brakes will make me just a tad nervous with these covered rims, but we all have a choice.......................

it's just food for thought.

cheers, have a safe 4th of july weekend.

 

FYI I emailed Franklin, the wheel caps are 15" only, no 16" available yet.

Also, the wheel caps are installed to the wheels using double-sided tape.

 

Please say this isn't true. Just for the prototypes, right? These have to be removeable/replaceable for cleaning and inspection. Double-stick tape is not a real solution for something that is removed regularly. OR... are they stuck to the plastic wheel trim rings. That might make some sense as you can then just yank the whole assembly off.

 

Hi Darell,

Yes, they are stuck to the trim rings. Check out Franklin's website.

 

IMO toyota did not go the full wheel close and no wheels skirts like the insight because then the car will look ugly for a lot of people and it wil not sell good.
thats what i think!

 

Yes I Agree this kit makes it ugly.
Also for the safety warning, everyone answer was that the Prius doesn't use the discs a lot, just think about in what situations the discs are used then...
If I was in those situations, i'd just hope that the brakes will work at 110% and not 80% due to bad cooling.

and no I don't drive a BMW... (but BMW knows for a long date that brake cooling is important... )

 

because bmw is a performers car
for speeding and fast breaking.
and this is from the M5 thats the BIG fast sports car type off all bmw's