Interesting results - shifting into 5th early vs. late

[jcp123]

Originally Posted by koreberg

I almost bought 1 of those svt focus. But then determined I would rather wait until I could afford something bigger. I really wanted a g35 or rx8. I am slowly changing my mind on that now.

What sort of FE do you get from that car? How does the sc affect the fe for that car?

I've been pleasantly surprised by what the hatchback body of this car will swallow up. You won't be moving couches, mind you, but it'll swallow up a couple TV's and a whole bunch of boxes at once. I was neither here nor there on hatchbacks - that is, I neither liked them nor disliked them - until I found out how functional they really are on this car. Where you'll notice the size difference vs. a G is on the back seat and on the ingress/egress, although I feel that it overall has a larger, more airy feeling than a G would (I've sat in a 350z, upon which the larger G35 2-door is based - the Z was extremely cramped-feeling).

As for fuel economy...check my gas logs. It was never stellar for me, although I don't have freeway time here and the rolling hills further take their tolls. When I've gotten on the freeway, though, mileage has been excellent, getting 34mpg with no regard for hypermiling - it could easily be stretched a lot further, though not as much as the '05-up Foci with the Duratec 2.0l. There's no supercharger on the car, although there's plenty of aftermarket kits that can fix that - they don't seem to hurt fuel economy much if at all. With the variable valve timing on the intake cam, it has sufficient torque to really short-shift, too - I can shift at 1750rpm without lugging in the next gear. Bad news? Gotta get premium. Put anything less in and the ECU pulls so much timing that the fuel economy tanks big-time.

If you're still interested, PM me - mine's still up for grabs. Can't afford it, the Mustang, and a bike on my retail paycheck, so the SVT gets the axe!

[jkam210]

I have no doubt that the shift point will affect the economy. I always thought the proper shift point was not the engine lug point, so to speak. Nice test!

The only surprise is that the highway car showed any improvement as it must use less shifting, compared to miles driven. A point of interest might be to count the number of shifts for the highway car. The city car would probably be too cumberson to count.

Thanks for the post.

[JHZR2]

The highway car doesnt get any shifts on the highway unless there is a traffic jam. Its an MT, so I know.

That said, though it is 35 miles straight, its at least 5 miles each way of severe traffic lights, and a big bridge each way, which is over a milelong (Id guess about 3/4 mile going up). Since I never turn the car off and always run the AC, I suppose that it makes a difference.

Also, because some of the trip is driving straight at 50-55 MPH, Ive found that Im better off at 25-2600 RPM in 4th, as compared to a non-lugging 2000 RPM in 5th, in terms of boost needs (no scangauge, but a turbo car will richen up when under boost to keep the right stoichiometry).

JMH