New 2013 owner and aeromodder

Vman455 · Mar 22, 2014

Greetings PriusChat!

After my previous car was rear-ended and totaled, I bought a new 2013 Prius at the beginning of February, and love it so far. My commute is ~50 miles one way and 90% highway (43 miles), so one of my goals with the Prius, like my last car, is to improve its aerodynamic efficiency, which will have the greatest impact on steady-state fuel economy on the highway. A couple weeks ago, I swapped the stock springs for Tein H-Tech to lower it, and this past weekend I installed some smooth wheel covers:

I pulled the moon caps from my old car before it was hauled off by the insurance company, and was disappointed to find they didn't fit the Prius' wheels (even though they're designed to use wheelcovers). So I had to go the pizza pan route, which didn't turn out too badly after all.

The patients ready for surgery:

I ended up having to redo them and move the bolts toward the rim another 1 1/2" to sit between the split spokes. Oops!

A little less wheel gap than factory:

I also removed the rear windshield wiper while I was at it; I don't want anything disrupting the airflow over the back of the car (I replaced the whip antenna with a shark fin from the PriusChat shop yesterday too):

And lastly, for now, a temporary grill block:

Future modifications will include a permanent, adjustable grill block, removal of the exterior mirrors and installation of convex interior mirrors, and perhaps a tail extension. My old car I got up to 54-55mpg on the freeway in warm weather; I'm excited to see what the Prius will do come summer.