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Bummer on the MPG. I played with this several decades ago. I routinely got 30-32 mpg with my Manta. I had to work to get it below 25.
My tricks.
Block the grill. Put lexan across the nose of the car from the outer edges of the headlights to several inches into the plastic grill piece. Look at the hole inside. It's small at the grill and opens toward the rad.
A huge airdam. My car was used for rally and was raised 2 inches. I had a 14 inch airdam attached behind the bumper. Totally vertical and flat. It wrapped around to the wheel arches.
Dechrome the sides. toss the right mirror and antennae.
165 tires...44 psi.
Skid plate (body pan?) to the rear of the transmission.
Solex stock carb.
Lightly tuned distributor.
Cut the fan blades down. Or go electric.
Big exhaust with glass pack. Later a header with same.
4-speed with 344 gears.
This was a small bumper manta. Probably the slickest of our Opels.
I did some coasting and tufting tests. I still had a pressure area at the base of the windshield, so the heaters/defrosters worked fine.
Coasting off a nearby mountain from 50mph netted a 15 mph increase at the bottom. I was impressed with the results.
Of course it all seems trivial now. Gas was 50 cents then.
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