by Jorge Chapa
If you ever happened to see the AeroCivic on the road, you’d be forgiven for wondering how such an odd-looking vehicle can even move. What you wouldn’t know is that Mike Turner’s hyper-modified Honda Civic gets better mileage and has a lower drag coefficient than even the newest generation of the Toyota Prius. At a speed of 65mph the Aerocivic gets a whopping 95mpg!
Although the Aerocivic is not exactly a consumer-ready vehicle, it is an incredible feat of DIY ingenuity. In order to achieve its eye-popping mileage a number of conditions must be met (well presurized tires, flat road), but the results are impressive nonetheless.
So how does it work? The secret lies in all of the aerodynamic modifications that Mike has made to the car. His goal was to create a car that would have an extremely low coefficient drag. A Toyota Prius for example, has a coefficient drag of around 0.25 CD. By smoothing out the boxy profile of his 1992 Honda Civic Mike was able to achieve 0.17 CD. On an 11 gallon tank, he will regularly get around 800 miles!
You can see all of Mike’s work on his recently launched website, where he writes about the car, the modifications, and his experiences driving it.
Via Treehugger
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