I put new wheels on my £500 Audi – now it does 72mpg

Aerodynamists’ jobs are becoming ever more important. We should have listened to them sooner

I’ve fitted a new set of wheels and tyres to my Audi A2, smaller ones than before, and improved its fuel consumption notably.
“I reckon it would be pushing 80mpg behind a lorry at 55mph,” said a colleague when I told him how the trip computer readout (measuring over the duration I’ve owned the car) had climbed from a steady 68.8mpg to 71.8mpg and rising since the new hardware was fitted. I think that’s a considerable underestimate.
Since making the wheel swap, I had put the difference down to narrower and more efficient tyres, plus the fact the new wheels were lighter. Then I read some quotes from a man with an ever more important job. Moni Islam, Audi’s head of aerodynamics and aeroacoustics, recently told Autocar: “The A2 pushed the boundaries of car design with its proportions based on the work of [famous 20th-century car designer and aerodynamicist] Wunibald Kamm, and its optimised under