Real Fiero Tech

Well, the last couple days iv'e been working on the fiero and trying some things out. I'm doing a hood vent; in fact ive already cut it out, I just need to finish sanding it. While I was working on the hood I kept thinking about other problem areas for trapt air. One that really stuck out was the rear bumper. I know of some drag racers who vent their rear bumper so as to allow the air that gets trapt from underneath the car to be vented. so what I did today was I took a two inch drill bit (the circluar ones used for makeing door knob holes) and put three holes on each side of the lower bumper near the tag. My question is do you think this will do a sufficient job of venting the traped air???

My camara's battery was dead today, so I will try to get pics tomowrow.

ohhhh i gotta see this...

Is that sarcasm I sense??? :la:

what drag racers do this? You talking of civics? I think I know what you are talking about but I want to see whats really on your mind.

product1620 wrote:Well, the last couple days iv'e been working on the fiero and trying some things out. I'm doing a hood vent; in fact ive already cut it out, I just need to finish sanding it. While I was working on the hood I kept thinking about other problem areas for trapt air. One that really stuck out was the rear bumper. I know of some drag racers who vent their rear bumper so as to allow the air that gets trapt from underneath the car to be vented. so what I did today was I took a two inch drill bit (the circluar ones used for makeing door knob holes) and put three holes on each side of the lower bumper near the tag. My question is do you think this will do a sufficient job of venting the traped air???

My camara's battery was dead today, so I will try to get pics tomowrow.

Let me guess. Fast and the Furious?

(if not, the license plate lite mounting holes I'm sure do the job...)

Shaun41178(2) wrote:what drag racers do this? You talking of civics? I think I know what you are talking about but I want to see whats really on your mind.

I'll try and get some pics tomowrow. I'm not sure of the exact racers, but I know ive seen this done to some of the street/strip cars.

Let me guess. Fast and the Furious?

Umm, no. I, unlike a lot of people, don't take those movies seriously, and certainly don't use them as a reference for performance tips.

(if not, the license plate lite mounting holes I'm sure do the job...)

Those are like what a half inch by and inch, I don't think that is going to vent too well.

a while ago when i had my neon, i was on neons.org a lot and i remember reading about this EXACT same thing. the guy cut 6 2" holes (3 on each side) then laid wire mesh behind. looked kinda dumb to me but he reported something like 12-16 more miles per tank of gas.

Personally I'd take a sheet of fiberglass and block off the bottomside so air can't get above it, but I guess your way takes away weight instead of adding it...

slow'n'steady wrote:a while ago when i had my neon, i was on neons.org a lot and i remember reading about this EXACT same thing. the guy cut 6 2" holes (3 on each side) then laid wire mesh behind. looked kinda dumb to me but he reported something like 12-16 more miles per tank of gas.

I think it looks decent, but it dosen't really matter to me anyway, cause i'm more into function than form (at least when it comes to cars :la: )

Then why not take the bumper off?

Aaron wrote:Personally I'd take a sheet of fiberglass and block off the bottomside so air can't get above it, but I guess your way takes away weight instead of adding it...

That is my main reason for doing it this way, and plus it simplifies the whole thing. The weight savings is also the reason I chose to just cut out the hood vent rather than using and add on peice.

Aaron wrote:Then why not take the bumper off?

Then where would I mount the license plate? :la:

Honestly, I don't want it to look like complete trash, but somthing as small as bumper vents dosen't bother me.

well, then why not form and function? i just think the six Os would look goofy, ESPESCIALLY on a fiero!! maybe a couple like 2" X 6" rectangular holes or something? i just think if you wanna do it, it would be pretty easy to make it functional, yet not obvious that you just took a hole cutter to the bumper... i wish i could find the pics of the neon that did it, then you;d see what i was talkin about.

slow'n'steady wrote:a while ago when i had my neon, i was on neons.org a lot and i remember reading about this EXACT same thing. the guy cut 6 2" holes (3 on each side) then laid wire mesh behind. looked kinda dumb to me but he reported something like 12-16 more miles per tank of gas.

Interesting... How did he arrive at this conclusion? IOW... did he record his data and compare fillups to the odometer, or did he just use the ass-o-meter? That's an extra 1.5 mpg or so, guessing the Neon's tank to be about 10 gallons.

speed holes!

Shaun41178(2) wrote:what drag racers do this? You talking of civics? I think I know what you are talking about but I want to see whats really on your mind.

exactly. real racers use belly pans to keep the air from being trapped in the first place.

The Dark Side of Will wrote:

slow'n'steady wrote:a while ago when i had my neon, i was on neons.org a lot and i remember reading about this EXACT same thing. the guy cut 6 2" holes (3 on each side) then laid wire mesh behind. looked kinda dumb to me but he reported something like 12-16 more miles per tank of gas.

Interesting... How did he arrive at this conclusion? IOW... did he record his data and compare fillups to the odometer, or did he just use the ass-o-meter? That's an extra 1.5 mpg or so, guessing the Neon's tank to be about 10 gallons.

well i dont remember exactly how it all wwent down, but somethng like he was visiting a friend in another state, and recorded the odo/fuel on the way down there, ended up cutting the holes while there, then took the same route back recording odo/fuel and ended up something like 10-13 further or somethin like that.... its on the neons.org website, i looked for a few minutes but gave up, it was prolly like a year ago when i read it.

sounds like too small a change to base anything on - especially with a reverse trip with uncontrolled conditions

Kohburn wrote:sounds like too small a change to base anything on - especially with a reverse trip with uncontrolled conditions

it was uphill, both ways....