WOW! I have to know what the intent is for this???
 

So, leaving the Harbor Freight in Columbia, SC this afternoon I spot this Miata next to mine. Looks like its all jacked up and got rear ended, upon closer inspection I was baffled. Take a look.

Does anyone know who this one belongs to? I would love to know what the goal is for using 215/75/14 truck tires on a Miata. Soo big that you have to remove the rear bumper and cut the wheel openings to fit them, oh and make wheel covers out of 1/4" insulating foam. Look at the radiator opening that was brutally attacked by some sheetmetal and what appears to be a screw driver. The interior was held together with metal tape, hell even had a huge diagnostic vacuume boost gauge so I guess there might be a turbo under the hood. I guess it makes a lot of power too, thats why you need the huge truck tires to get a proper effective gear ratio. I wish I had a better camera.
I kinda felt bad because I know I was a highschool kid with a POS Ford EXP that I drove like it was a Ferrari, so I know how it can be. But even my first beloved POS wasn't this bad.
Here comes the best part. As I drove off I see a grown ass man get in the driver's seat.

I hate to be a dick, but this is too good not to share!:rofl:
I hope its a LeMons car.

Let's see... blocked off radiator, rear wheel spats, and a vacuum gauge. Someone is trying to be the Miata high mileage champ.

See ecomododder.com for more (bizarre) examples on their forum

lol @ hypermile ------ry.

yup hypermile

BTW, Goodyear Marathons aren't truck tires. They are 6 ply trailer tires and are rated for 60 psi cold pressures. I have them on my boat trailer. Yep, trying to hyper-mile a Miata. Fail without a hard top. That's 2-3 mpg easy.

I'm guessing he doesn't have the budget for a hardtop, or he has something "better" in mind. I'm more interested in the results before I insult him. Kudos if he created a 40mpg miata for what looks like zero monies.

I just dont get why you would choose a miata which from the start isn't that aerodynamic, doesnt get fantastic millage, and doesnt have a modern engine with a decent flowing head.

But yeah...looks like it was a LOW BUDGET project, so who knows.

Yup, I am an @SS! It hit me this morning that that must be the goal. I wonder how much difference that makes, doubt you will get 40mpg, even out of a 1.6. Why the huge rear tires???

Doesn't make sense to have the whole rear bumper removed though, I know the factory one is a parachute, but I am sure no bumber cannot be any improvement.
I hope it's someone on the forum. It would be interesting to see if there are real world changes in mpg to be seen by all that.

What does it do to overall drag when you have a huge rake angle like that due to the massive rear tire diameter? Are the trailer tires supposed to have a lower rolling resistance?

I don't know about drag but the large diameter tires would be the same effect as changing the rear diff ratio.

Also, the trailer tires would have lower rolling resistance because you can air the piss out of them. They aren't cheap though. I put a set on my boat last year, same size or close anyway. They are $125 a piece for 14's.

Bigger tires mean less RPMs - though I think if he was smart, he would have put in the effort for something thinner than 215s.

yah i figured it out after i saw the gauge. i wonder what results are.

I get a crappy 22mpg in my 99. Is that normal. Fail.

It's not the car, Faefae. It's not the car.

My NB8A used to do 6.5 litres per 100kms which is 36 mpg US. So surely everyone driving a 1.6 can get 40mpg US with a bit of care?

My prelude does 30mpg.

Stupid 4.10 rear...
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1345725748

I managed right at 40 mpg coming back from the FM summer camp year ago (driving across eastern Colorado and western Kansas). I know Jeremy tweaked my tune for something while I was there, but not for lean cruise. Made it from Limon, CO to Junction City, KS on one tank...which included getting pulled over.

I get about 23 doing my 1.2 city mile commute to work. 28 when it was all highway top down. Cant wait for the new engine and the ecu, should be able to get it up to the 35mpg on the highway.

Best I ever did was 29mpg cruising at 65mph. I would usually get 16-17mpg in town, 23-24 highway.

Worst I ever did was 12mpg in town. That was fun. :D

For the record, I track my mileage almost every tank, and I saw no measurable difference between my soft top and my hard top.

It was a heck of a lot quieter, though, lol.

I also get 24-26 mpg consistently.

I used to average 28 combined on my MSM. Then after I installed the new clutch and replaced my failing fuel pump it went down to 24-26. I assume my fuel pump was running a bit lean.

A 4000 foot drop in altitude helps a lot there.

--Ian

I usually run 24mpg, last tank i ran almost 27mpg, all city.

Yea a real ECU will do wonders, the stock ECU in the MSM is a lot of smoke and mirrors.

The stock ECU in the MSM is the biggest POS I have driven. It holds the car back as long as it can until it unleashes what can only be described as the after burner. Throttle transitions feel disconnected and it had pockets of hesitation. The best part is once you add some parts to open up the breathing it just amplifies the problem by 10x. I really need to install my eMS2.

I just checked my mileage, and it's pushing 28-30. That's driving like a moonshiner, bouncing off the limiter several times a week at least. I do about 50/50 city/highway. I'm sure I could top 30 if I was gentler, but what's the fun in that?

I've never gotten higher than 26mpg in my MSM. No matter how i drive it. Pretty terrible when it's just as financially efficient to drive my damn Cherokee on long trips.

This is mind-boggling to me. I understand the M.netters getting 30 MPG, but not someone saying they drive "like a moonshiner" (great turn of phrase!).

Granted, I drive almost all city but I don't think I ever did much more than 25 MPG in my '94 even when it was stock. Then again, I am generally an automatic ~20% reduction in fuel economy in any car I drive due to an... enthusiastic driving style. :)

I doubt you'll do much better. I tried not driving like a douchbag, not reving the car, and not doing 80+ keeping up with traffic on the highway and I got worse gas mileage.

I actually noticed the same: I would get 26-28mpg consistently and driving like a grandma shifting at 2500 never going past like 10-20% throttle and all that has never actually given me any significant mpg increases.

I wonder how much MS would increase economy on an otherwise bone stock 01

I got 2-3mpg more driving my 97 after I put on the FM turbo kit and MS.

Depends, I've gained almost 2 mpg a a couple different stockish cars by just tuning their stock DFCO settings to be much more aggressive. No idea how aggressive the miata ones are, they certainly dont feel aggressive at all. Then you can normally eek out a couple more mpg by turning cruise spark to mbt on the dyno, more if you switch to lean cruise. I cant comment about the effects of this in a miata.

I've managed 38mpg doing 65-75 in 6th.

I'm curious how long the stock MSM ecu keeps the afr leaned out.

in what situation? like WOT? im sure it stays lean until 5K; find stock dynos.

In terms of per kpa vs rpm graph.

My MSM with intake and downpipe gets 26MPG all summer long. With the real ECU I have got over 33 on ~75mph road trips 3 different times. Driving carefully at 65mph, I could get 22 while pulling a 4x6 enclosed tire trailer. The stock ECU sucks.

Best I managed was 33.3mpg on a trip to Austin at 65-70mph. I even had the top down for an hour of that drive. That was stock 1.6, stock ecu, no turbo.

I haven't seen any hypermilers with aero mods around here. Maybe I just haven't noticed.

I get 25-26 mpg since Ive had this Miata. To the original post, Honestly if that thing got 60mpg I still wouldnt drive it lol. I will say that its interesting the way it sits and who knows what the end product might be.