Archives

Another lesson learned: driving terrain that's different from the norm is a good thing! I've been working on this new work commute for the past couple of days, which requires a different mind set from all the highway driving I've been doing. The back road stop-to-stop stuff requires a much more aggressive approach in order to get anything approaching satisfying FE. The side benefit is that it set me up for a more aggressive approach to the highway as well.

I did the usual CT to RI thing yesterday, 109 miles of 100% highway driving. Normally I get low 40s (I think 43mpg or a bit more was my previous best) by DWL, below the limit speeds, with lots of NICE-ons and the occasional FAS.

First things first, yesterday I hit traffic that I've never seen on this route before. 5-7 miles of 0-25mph crawling up and down hills, which I managed with moderately aggressive DWB and as much FAS as I could manage. You could call it LS P&G but it was really just a matter of letting gravity drive the car instead of the engine when possible, and just bump-starting for a second to re-build brake vacuum when necessary. Still, I figured I was sunk since I never got out of 3rd gear while climbing.

After that all I had to deal with was light to moderate traffic and all the hills. This turned out to be a good opportunity to try the HS P&G techniques that Wayned described to me a few weeks ago. Well, it works! I let DWL go for the most part, maintaining speed up-hill so that I could get the longest coast down the other side. Drive, peak, FAS, glide for at least 0.3-0.4mi on average, drop a few MPH, bump start, re-gain speed just before the bottom, hold it, climb...rinse and repeat at least a couple dozen times. Once I even passed a guy in FAS at 60mph because he was probably doing 50. Kinda fun :) .

The result was a very satisfying 45.7mpg, destroying all of my previous highway segments. Hats off to my teachers!

Return trip = 44.9mpg on the ScanGauge (net elevation gain on the way back). Would have been better if not for all the people driving slower than me (that's saying something) down the hills that I was trying to FAS. Methinks they were either asleep or **gasp** trying to save fuel! I'll gladly accept the tiny mileage hit if the latter is accurate ;)

brick, you are catching up fast!!! sooner or later, we'll be FASing side by side if you continue your achivements ;O

haha congrats man!

Hi Tim:

___About all I can add is my sincere thanks that you are continuing to push. I cannot wait until you have that new shorter route truly optimized as it will make a lot of 7th gen Accord owners green with envy :D

___Good Luck and congratulations.

___Wayne

Thanks, Wayne! I did a little better on the commute this morning, bringing it up from 40.0mpg (Friday) to 42.6mpg using a whole lot of FAS. The return trip is on the threshold of 37mpg so we'll see what happens between now and Friday.

Muahahaha! I think I'm starting to get this thing dialed in, at least in one direction. 47.0mpg door-to-door, and that was down from 49.xmpg right before I got on the highway and started screwing up the numbers. That will work out to nearly 41mpg for the day as long as I maintain or beat my baseline return number of 36mpg.

Return trip: 39.3mpg. Today's total: 42.8mpg over 34.1mi by P&Ging my rear end off. If this kind of mileage can be maintained, we're looking at a net daily savings of nearly half a gallon of gas vs. my old route! Way beyond expectation, to be sure.

Sorry for posting every time I blow my nose...I'm having way too much fun with this :)