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"If you know you can get 80 miles per gallon, why wouldn't you do it" (http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0708/532824.html)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Heavy_traffic.jpgABC 7 News - July 2, 2008

Gas prices are causing people to try and get as many miles as they can out of a tank of gas, but some local drivers are taking it to the extreme.

"Right now I am doing 60.6 miles per gallon," hyper-miler Kent Johnson said. At 60 miles per gallon, one would think that Johnson is driving a hybrid--but he's not.

Johnson is actually driving a small, conventional, gas powered Chevrolet. But Johnson isn't a typical driver--he's a hypermiler.

Johnson says drivers should "take a look at what your car is EPA rated for as a combined gas mileage, and then exceed that."

His methods of doing this, though, may seem a bit odd. For example, Johnson drives with his shoes off. But this and other methods seem to work. Over the last six months, Johnson averaged just over 40 MPG in a car the EPA said should get about 30 mile to the gallon. In addition, Johnson said he's, "going to be driving a little bit slower."... http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0708/532824.html

Good job, Kent.

At least Officer Betts suggested we behave "within reason" instead of dismissing us out of hand.

harrumph! I've been driving w/o AC to and from work this week, trying to maintain my FE (reading) of 53 mpg. So far so good!

They're still dogging people on the drafting issue. I tried it a long time ago for maybe 5 miles total and found that it was just way too stressful. Not only that, but you don't get to see the bucolic countryside and scenery. If you're thinking about drafting, just forget it and move on to the next item. I'm guessing that since the media has got ahold of the drafting issue, we will, sadly, be hearing about it for a long time.

On my 85 Honda Accord, I got a consistent 38.5 to 39.5 MPG from a car rated 30 highway and 25 city, 400 + per tank. I did it by removing excess weight, tweaking the AJC (air jet controller), and running the tires at nameplate pressure. All this while running at the posted speed limit or better since, at the time, I was not aware that the air drag formula was a second order, or squared, function.

Faithful and True.