We know you're a little down about the cost of gas these days, we are too. Indications are that todays $110 a barrel oil will only be getting more expensive. So what are we to do? Well, this isn't the first time gas was crazy expensive (shush you Europeans, you brought that on your socialist selves), and C&D did something cool that seems just as appropriate today as it was back then. Okay, so maybe that $11 worth of aero modifications was in 1974, so it's closer to the equivalent of $48 now, but still, the simple modifications they did gave amazing results.
No brainer type stuff like switching to radial tires from bias ply, building headlight covers to improve the airflow around the front, a big chin spoiler to reduce drag under the car and other types of tricks netted an impressive effect of 25% mileage gained. The whole thing was done very scientifically and all the details with charts and such are over at Ecomodder. Wonder how some of those would work on the old premium swilling A4?