Open forum on hypermiling follwed by test driving other people's hybrids.
Chuck Thomas
CleanMPG Sept. 11, 2007
The third Houston Hybrid and Hypermilers meeting was well-organized, but sometimes things take a different direction. The adjenda changed because the amount of interest was much greater than anticipated so the only presentation was an intro to hypermiling, then it became an open forum over lunch at La Salsa's. Afterwards, we did a show-and-tell on our hybrids and drove each other's vehicles. This includes Dan's wife getting an opportunity to test drive Mark's FEH - she is seriously considering getting one. For some reason, Ford is not promoting the FEH.
Lydia (right side of cover picture) has suggested ways to get this meeting on a local Houston website. Several came from long distances:
- Mark from College Station
- Mark Parrish from Austin
- Chuck Thomas from the Dallas area
La Salsa's - the meeting place
Dan's wife makes good posters!
- Left to right: Chuck Thomas (5-speed Honda Insight with MIMA)
- Marc Parrish (Prius II)
- Dan Bryant (Group Founder - Prius II)
- Oscar (Toyota Camry Hybrid)
- Mark (FEH)
Sharp eyes can tell this is a
MIMA-equiped Insight (display on top of the steering column). Dan heeded the warning on manually engaging the electric motor sparing - 108.5mpg over 3.9 miles. Almost everyone overuses the electric motor - known as "leadfinger". For comic effect, Chuck feigned pushing on the passenger side as Dan did on the 2007 MPG Challenge at HybridFest.
What is MIMA? It's a mod Mike Dabrowski made that allows Insight drivers to override the auto computers and determine when to engage the Assist and recharge the battery pack. Only about 50 Insight's equiped - about a 20% increase in FE. Some installations have a FAS switch - which figured prominently in Dan's results.
One more group shot from left to right: Marc Parrish, Chuck Thomas, Dan Bryant, Oscar, Mark
Eagles may fly, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines (with 1 known exception)
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