I've seen a lot of modding going on here but hardly any to make the car even more efficient out of the plug-in mod... Considering the car is fairly heavy there could be some nice gains to be made by tossing out some stuff out of the car. I'm kinda wondering how much one could trash out and still solo drive it back and forth to work and how much added city mpg it would mean highway being neglectable as far as weight goes.
i removed the doors and seats (except drivers seat of course). massive improvement. thinking about the hood and hatch, but wondering about aerodynamics?
I ran data through calculator and at speeds above 45MPH aerodynamics have the biggest impact, second to rolling resistance. At speeds below 45 LRR tires would mean more then loosing a couple hundred pounds, YMMV
ya but its not like you have to do one OR the other... Also have to consider that more than 90% of my commute is below 45 mph otherwise I wouldn't even bother thinking about it. Thing is I have to go trought more stop signs that the battery can hold up trought meaning I'm burning fuel in the least efficient part of the power band of the car for quite some time. That alone being enough to make a nice impact on mpg and like I said higher up being lighter on the highway changes next to nothing.
sorry, i was on the third glass of my two glass limit. thought you were serious about trashing it out.
It's ok, looking at ur other posts I was kinda wondering where that comment came from, I guess the way I wrote it could confuse one after a couple glasses
About all there is to remove is the spare and a few tools and maybe the out side rear view mirrors.Radio and speakers. Not sure what that would amount to! Hal
Easily removed and replaced stuff would include at least the: Passenger seat Rear seat Spare tire and jack Hatch area floor and storage tray Rear seating and hatch area carpeting center console glove box parts lower dash panel... I'd guess ~250 lbs. Then it's on the the roof liner, door and rear hatch inner panels. (Better add a pair of Bose noise canceling headphones at ~$300.) maybe ~30 lbs. All your clothes and shoes, wear a Speedo year 'round. (Add limo window tint on all windows.) ~8 lbs. Shave your head, armpits, and pubic area, full body wax hair removal 2.769 gm. You will get bigger MPGs gains just by setting tire pressure to 42 psi front/40 rear and slowing down 5 MPH. :biggrin1:
After ripping out interior parts to shave weight during my drag racing day, I found the gains were not worth the discomfort or the ugly look of missing interior. I bet you could increase mpg but you would have to remove a lot of stuff. The money and fuel saved would be pretty minimal due to the already high fuel efficiency.
Back in the 1970's in the bicycle industry, the thing to do, for racing enthusiasts, was to "drill out" and mill away all the "unnecessary" areas of components. Cranks, chainrings, derailleurs, shifters and brake levers, handlebars, seat posts. You name it, they drilled it. And all to save weight. Not to say weight wasn't important, but when derailleurs broke off at an inopportune moment because the mounting clamp no longer had enough strength, then it became laughable - and dangerous! My favorite moment was coming upon a kickstand off to the side of a road, on a hundred miler, that had fell off someone's bike because it was drilled out way too much. (kickstands are considered a totally unimportant part anyway, to enthusiasts). We saved the thing and brought it back to the shop as a trophy to stupidity. Save weight for fuel economy where you reasonably can, but please don't go nuts with how you accomplish it.
Remembering, of course, that it isn't really speed which is important here, but distance between stops. If you drive 25mph with no stops, reducing the car's weight won't help much at all. If you drive 60mph, but stop every 1/2 mile, reducing weight will help immensely (as, of course, would driving like a sane person ).
You forgot an old bicycle racing tip to reduce weight: take a crap before the race. Kickstand!?!?! People even had them on their bikes???? I've never had one, but then I was born post-1980.
Seems like the city didn't quite understand it wasn't necessary to put stop signs at every corner and sometimes more... They put up a stop sign for an abandonned railroad xing... the tracks end on both sides of the road and there still is a stop there and theres another right on the other side of the xing because theres another street like 10 feet after. If I were to lighten it I would want it to weigh under 2000 pounds, would mean getting all of the interior out, getting forged 15 inch wheels, ridding A/C + coils, balancer shaft out, rear wiper out, getting all window and door power out xept driver side, anything else I could deem unnecessary out. I can see an easy 600 pounds out, the rest would probably get hard.
