how to streamline an economical peugeot 106 and make it super-efficient

peugeot 106 ecomod: A LOW-COST streamlined car

‘peugeot 106 ecomod’ is an economical streamlined car that guarantees low-cost mobility. jesse kraal and ritsert mans— a car journalist and an artist — took the challenge to modify a cheap car and make it super-efficient. they bought a peugeot 106 with a reasonable mileage (130k km), with almost 500 euros.all images courtesy of jesse kraal and ritsert mans

all the extra parts are hand-made in steel and aluminum

their aim was to build an aero streamline body kit. they started by stripping down the car to reduce weight, lowered the chassis, ground and made the wheel covers, built the tail, and finally, added thin oil. the aerodynamic tail and bumper were hand-made in steel and aluminum. the bodykit could probably be lighter with different materials, but they loved the look and early testing showed little influence of small changes in weight.

they did a last test drive: after a 200 km drive they kept adding fuel and a glorious result was way out of sight. after a month of thinking and reading, they went back to the drawing board to figure out what could be wrong.

even a self-made aero kit can have a huge gain

a research of the combustion engine science gave the answer: the needed energy to drive the aerodynamic car at a constant speed differed too much from the original. this made the engine too big and powerful to produce the needed power in an efficient way. with this inefficiency, the duo lost almost all the extra mileage it gained with the aerotail. they came up with a way to disable the combustion in half the engine while driving on the highway, just like some modern cars do. 

with this simple mod, they could now snorr on the highway with the engine equivalent of a big lawnmower. they traveled 459 km at a slow but legal and acceptable constant speed of 75-80 km/h. the result was: 37,8 km on 1 liter (a factory consumption is 16.5 km on 1 liter). for now, the peugeot will cruise the dutch roads as an eco winner in style.

building the tail

only 1 liter is needed for nearly 38 km

1/7

before the remodel

stripping it down

grinding and making the wheel covers

 

tired and fulfilled, little fuel was needed after an 8-hour record attempt

sideview first test with aerotail

 

project info:

name: peugeot 106 ecomod
designers: jesse kraal, ritsert mans

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: christina petridou | designboom