This is a good point, and illustrates that a hybrid "best fit" is one where it has enough just enough power both to accelerate and to handle things like hill climbs etc. without having to wind out to an inefficient RPM, then it could allow the motor to provide extra "punch" if necessary. If oyu are regularly acclerating with tons of pedal pressure to get the acceleration you need, your fuel efficiency may actually slightly benefit with a more powerful engine, or see the same FE with more power in reserve.

I've been thinking of some ways I could do this myself, as the hilly commute in my area has proven quite taxing for the small engine once the battery pack runs out. What would probably be ideal for you for more power without much FE hit would be a turbocharger of some sort, to imrpove the pick-up in the 2000-2600rpm efficiency sweet spot. I've read of a few people who installed turbochargers in their Honda Insights, but that might be more difficult given the crowded engine-bay. There's also not going to be any commercial turnkey product -- a HCH-1 turbo woudl need to be home-made.

Another project you can see here involves manual control of the electric motor, I wish soething like this were available on the Civic -- it might then be possible to accelerate using the electric motor on demand rather than waiting for the system to "Decide" it needs extra power. Both performance and fuel eocnomy could be improved by more intelligent use of the battery pack.

Other possiblities may involve improving aerodynamics -- while this would not increase peak horsepower, you would be running with less load at highway speeds, and thus have more in reserve.

have you been to 7thgencivic.com? I'd look there.

Yeah, I too faced the same issue. Unless you can convince the local crowd here that by "performance" you really mean "better fuel economy" they will all look at you like you are the village idiot and throw e-rocks at you.

I am working with K&N for a replacement filter for the HCH II but the design of the filter for the HCH and HCH II are a bit different in actual shape.

The basics will net you the same results. Intake and exhaust are the starting pounts. I would personally avoid and programming changes as there is a possibility that any changes that are made could have a bad effect on the IMA.

Ignore those who cry "what about your warranty" and do a search for "magnusson moss". The Magnusson Moss act describes how aftermarket parts cannot void a warranty unless it is 100% proven to be responsible for the damage.

One poster pointed out a truth. This is a hybrid forum. You are not going to find anyone here that can relate performance to economy without being snide about it.

Now if you ask them about running out of gas on the interstate in the interest of trying to get 700 miles out of a tank of gas...

Funny how one forum can act like YOU are the idiot for wanting a little more spunk in your car while at the same time members are intentionally running out of gas and tailgating Semi-Trucks to see how far they can push a tank of gas.

Tyler;

You are right in your assesment of the Hybrid Forum for the most part. The Hybrid owners for the most part as you pointed out in your post do some really wild and somewhat crazy things to see how far they can push their FE. On the other hand do you think that there would be many members here that would go to a (Performance) oriented Forum and ask the question as to how to get the ultimate FE out of their Hybrid? Think about it. All the Forums are for the most part centered around exacting areas of (Performance) or in this Forum (Fuel Economy). Neither is wrong in what they are doing but we have to select the right Forum for our information. Performance is not really what this Forum is about for the most part. I do not think the members here are trying to be funny or cute they more than likely think it is funny for a Hybrid owner to be on this Forum and wanting to know how to get the best performance Mods for a Hybrid Vehicle.

Have a "Heart" and let everyone do their thing be it (Performance) or (Fuel Economy). There is no sense in getting upset at members here and think they don't care. I think the bottom line is they don't know how to make a Hybrid more powerful. They would more than likely would not have purchased the Hybid if they were interested in performance.

Just as a though about performance vehicles one might trade in there slower Civic Hybrid and move up to the HAH (Honda Accord Hybrid) or the (New Camry hybrid). There is just not alot of choices in the Hybrids when it comes to Performance. Hybrids for the most part center around smaller ICE Engines and use IMA for extra power as needed. None are what you would say are Fast. Except the HAH and the New Camry Hybrid. Lexus has a Hybrid that is fast. However all these Hybrids do not get really high FE, because they have larger more powerful ICE engines.

tigerhonaker
2007 HAH
__________________
Click on Pictures to Enlarge:

That's a little bit of a stretch - painting all on GreenHybrid with one brush.

There ARE several here interested about squeezing at least a little more oomph out of the little Civic Hybrid. THeres you, me, CGame (now a Camry Hybrid owner), Duc, and a few others I'm surely forgetting.
It's just that high performance is certainly NOT at the top of the list for just about every economy-oriented Hybrid owner - so many of us have nothing much to contribute on the performance front.
I, for one, am definitely interested in any reasonalbe measures that can be taken to improve performance, without killing FE. After all, if we didn't care as much about the FE, we could've all bought regular Civics.

Steve

STOP terrorism - Drive a HYBRID

Vehicles:
350 miles a week ------------ 2006 HCH II, Magnetic Pearl, w/NAVI (born on May 25, 2006)
350 miles a month ---------- 2003 Mazda Tribute ES-V6
350 miles a year (for now) - 1986 Mercedes 560SL

I do not agree. The members here are telling the guy to put Ferarri engines in his hybrid car and being general smart asses about something they obviously know nothing about.

Fuel economy is about efficiency. "Performance modifications" assist in releasing the potential of an ICE by making it use its power more efficiently.

If you come to a performance website and ask the members about getting better fuel economy, you would be surprised at the response.

Performance car owners feel the burn the worst and can squeeze MPG out of V8 engines better than most here could. I was squeezing 30 MPG out of a 2001 Lincoln LS V8. I was getting better MPG because I had "performance modifications" that everyone here seems to think are the tools of the devil.

It would just be nice to see the members here open their minds and stop acting like jack asses about people trying get more power from a hybrid.

But where are you guys when the rocks start getting thrown?

This site just had a guy log in here to ask a good question and no one stood up for him while everyone here acted like a bunch of 6 year olds.

If you want to be viewed differently than everyone else, then do not lay silent when they start bagging on folks for asking these types of questions. Until you step up and do something about it, you are no different than everyone else in this thread.

Hi gumby;

I just noticed that you have a 2006 HCH II on order with Nav. I have had mine now for several months and I love it. It is really quite on the road and believe me it will run as fast as you want to go any where near the posted speed limits. That is not to say that if you choose to drive it at 75-80 miles per hour that it will get fantasic FE, it won't. However if you drive it in a little slower like 65 MPH it will get FE and the Nav. is really great. I had a couple of the Accord Coupes with the Nav. option and also with the performance package from Honda. They ran great and the Nav. on them was great. The Nav. on the HCH II is really easy to use and you can't get lost. I also had the X/M Satellite Radio option installed with the Bass Speaker option. It all sounds just fine and all works through the Nav. screen and also you can do voice commands as well for changing stations Etc. If I had it to do all over again I would do the same purchase. The car is not fast but believe me it will merge onto the interstate with no-problem what so ever. It runs great and as I said before it is as quite as a luxury car to me.

There are a great many Pics. of my HCH II if you click on my Pic below and go to my pics from there. Once you get to the other Forum, just click on my Photos and you can view all of them.

Happy-Motoring

Terry

tigerhonaker
2007 HAH
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Click on Pictures to Enlarge:

Here you go bellboy.

Exhaust Mod Thread

This was a pretty extensive thread and there were claims of better mileage as well as better FE, the best of both worlds. No, I won't go the route of telling you to put a bigger engine in it but I did have a Pinto that had a 302 in it once. (V-8 versus the stock 4 cyl half its size for the uninformed)

'00 Insight "Wazabi" -75,000+ miles
'03 Toyota Matrix - 81,000+ miles
'03 HCH-CVT-OSBM-41,000+ miles (retired 04-10-06)
"I'm very secure with my little Insight, no Prius envy here."

Wow, people really get their panties in knots about certian topics. Exhaust and intake mods certainly do increase FE in most vehicles, but being as most of these cars are newer, you will have a hard time finding many who have modified their cars at all (aside from accessory packages). Then there is always the other aspect of members not searching the archives for threads that might answer their questions. Paticipating in a forum online is always a Catch-22.

Alabaster Silver HcH