Can a saturn LW hypermill?
 

in short yes...

I have been on this site now just under a month and after reading about:
Driving techniques, aero mods, and speeds that suit milage I have begun implementing them. I have seen in the last week a 26% improvement over the EPA ratings for my car (that's the new ratings).

philip1 -

Yay! An LW hypermiler. Based on your racing garage picture, I think you have a stickshift, yes? Have you gotten a Scangauge?

Happy New Year!

CarloSW2

it's an automajic and a scangague is going to be my easter present

Shouldn't be too tough...My wife and I shared the driving to FL last week in her 2000 LW; I brought the Scangauge. I couldn't do too much because ET was important and I had to keep the engine running to keep her happy. In spite of the speed, traffic and her disdain for hypermiling, the two of us averaged ~30 MPG vs the old EPA highway of 26 MPG, averaging 68-70 MPH (hitting 80+ in some spots).

BTW, the LW can be flat towed, so it should be fine during neutral coasting with the engine off.

I am looking for places to do the eoc but no power steering without engine is no fun

you shouldn't be without engine power in situations where you'll be steering anyway.

OR just think of it as the price of mileage. it's really not that bad except when you suddenly go to that state after having it. I've driven without a PS belt before, it's a little tiring at first but a few days in town and you don't notice. My soon to be new car is so base model it doesn't have power steering or brakes.

I agree with Phil. Hard turns during EOC in an LW require a lot of brute force -- quite a bit more than in my own car. The LW's a fairly big car, so it needs a lot of assistance.

Removing that horrid roof rack
 

Have you thought of removing that roof rack off Lord Vader? Here's a fun task: go to your nearest big-box store, mall, whatever - where there is a LOT of parking and many vehicles. Count the number of vehicles with roof racks, and stop when you get to a vehicle that actually has something mounted on those racks. I've never gone below 100:1 yet.

If you want to hypermile, you definitely want to lose that piece of drag-inducing equipment. Roof racks are in use by less than 1/4 of 1% of people in the US by my count. On long trips I will count vehicles with empty roof racks vs. the number using them to mount something. Usually I can count to 1000, never gone below 100:1 yet. My averages are on the order of about 500:1. I've counted better than 25,000 vehicles with roof racks and I haven't seen even 40 vehicles with them actually carrying anything yet.

Not that I have a definite opinion on them. =) Those who actually carry bicycles have found it's much more aerodynamic to put it on the back, or just bike there in the first place. I have NEVER seen luggage on the top of a vehicle, EVER. That's what they were there for in the 70's on all those station wagons - "luggage racks." Never seen luggage there ever.

Remove the rack - I'll bet you see 1-3 MPG easy.

the roof rack is a problem because the side curtain airbags are located right below the mounting points. Not being an explosives expert I'm not going to risk my life taking the rack off.

Removing them can also cause some leaks if not properly filled in...taking off the "cross bars" will make a difference and they don't attach to the body itself.

I intentionally purchased the car sans crossbars because of the aerodynamic drawbacks of having them

philip1 -

Most excellent. Are you also looking to remove the sidebars down the line?

CarloSW2

the roof rack is a problem because the side curtain airbags are located right below the mounting points. Not being an explosives expert I'm not going to risk my life taking the rack off.

philip1 -

Ok. I would have the same trepidation. If you disconnect the battery, you could disable the mechanism, but I would be worried about putting it back together correctly, i.e. exploding after battery connecting.

I was toying with the following idea if I had a Pontiac Vibe with sidebars like yours :

BEFORE :
Attachment 1143

AFTER :
Attachment 1144

It could be a removable kamm-back. It would start at the beginning of the sidebars because it would be designed to mask the sidebars from the air-stream. Sooooo, there would be a large horizontal sheet/roof component also starting at the beginning of the sidebars. The purpose of the "sunroof wind deflector" would be to insure that wind/air doesn't get under the horizontal sheet of the kamm-back at speed and turn it into a sail :

Attachment 1145

The sunroof wind deflector could be replaced with something cheaper like duct tape (at least initially).

CarloSW2

You may want to pick up a Haynes manual for the car; it should give the proper protocol for working around the airbags, and is useful for lots of other things as well.

I have one and I am still not going to mess with them. The manual has proven quite usefull in other areas.