In the pantheon of very efficient production cars, there are perhaps three Hondas that truly stand out: the first generation Insight hybrid, the lean burn Civic VX, and the CRX HF.

Recently, a CRX HF owner further cemented that car’s status on the list by achieving a stunning 118 mpg (US) in a fuel economy rally in New York state.

The rally, organized by the Adirondack Motor Enthusiasts Club (AMEC), took place August 23 over 104 miles of scenic, lightly travelled, winding roads through the southern Adirondack mountains (with admittedly very MPG-friendly speed limits of 45 to 55 mph).

It’s fair to say the 118 mpg performance that Chang Ho Kim coaxed from his modified 1989 CRX surprised event officials.  The marshalls – who observed each of the 25 competitors’ vehicles being filled to the brim both at the start and finish for the most accurate MPG calculations – brought Chang’s CRX back to the pump several times at the end to ensure they’d squeezed as much fuel as possible into its tank.

(For comparison, the next highest scores were 106 mpg (US) from an ecomodded 1998 Geo Metro/Pontiac Firefly and 90 mpg (US) from a 2000 VW Jetta TDI – more details here.)

In stock form, the 2nd generation Honda CRX HF is a good platform for fuel economy. It’s light (1830 lbs), has a small 1.5L 62 horsepower engine, and relatively tall gearing.  It’s rated at 41 city / 50 highway / 45 combined mpg (US) by the EPA’s  revised 2008 ratings.

Modifications, mechanical & racing experience helped secure win

How did Chang Ho Kim pull a 118 mpg rabbit out of his hat?  EcoModder recently spoke to Chang to shed some light on his background, his CRX and his driving techniques.

EM: Let’s start with a bit about yourself.  What you do for work & fun?

CHK: I am a mechanic in my own shop, FunHondas, in Maynard, Massachusetts.  I mostly do general repair and maintenance of Honda/Acura cars.  I do a lot of tire work as I am a preferred installer for www.tirerack.com.  You can type in zipcode 01754 to see what is said about me and my shop on their website.

For fun I like to travel and go camping with my family. I also enjoy photography.

EM: Is it true this was your first fuel economy competition?

CHK: This was my first fuel economy run.  I had never even heard of it before I saw the post from the AMEC organizers on the New England Region SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) web site.

EM: So you’ve got racing experience then?  That would explain your skill behind the wheel.

CHK: My passion has been for autocross.  I started autocrossing in 1991.  I have placed as high as 3rd place at the SCCA Solo Nationals in a HS 89 Civic Si.  Last year I campaigned a DS 00 Integra Type R.  This year I am running my ST 89 Civic Si.  I also have a STX 89 Civic Si that I have trophied with at the Solo Nationals.

Recently I started to rallycross a M2 90 Civic GSR and have been having lots of fun playing in the dirt and snow and ice.  I am currently the season points leader in M2 for NER/SCCA.  That is mostly due to the winter events where my studded Nokian Hakka5 tires do really well.  I still have a lot to learn about driving in gravel.

I have ice raced my 01 Integra Type R, autocross style, using Nokian tires and have done very well, beating the AWD cars in the studded tire class with my FWD car on studded Hakka5 tires.

EM: OK, so you’ve obviously got experience with car control & precision.  Where did you pick up your fuel saving techniques?

I spent a lot of time on the internet before the competition starting at the AMEC site and linking to many others: Aerocivic.com gave me a lot of ideas for aerodynamic modifications.  EcoModder.com gave me many tips on driving technique.

EM: Before we talk about your driving techniques, tell us a bit about your car preparation and mods.

CHK: It’s a 89 Honda CRX HF with about 150,000 miles on the odometer that I got from a client.

General maintenance before the fuel economy rally included:

• I had the AC fixed, I hate hot and muggy.
• Redline MTL in the tranny and Mobil1 0w20 in the engine.
• new Honda airfilter, cap, rotor, wires.  They all needed replacing anyway.

Modifications before the rally included:

• Tires: low rolling resistance 155/65/14 Nokian HakkaR snow tires, brand new for the event, pumped up to 50psi mounted on Honda 14×5 alloy wheels
• Shocks: Konisport, revalved with SPSS1 valving, double adjustable, shortened body, set to soft
• Springs: Ground Control coilovers with 350 front 250 rear springs.
• Lowered car 2 inches, front camber at -3.5, toe set to zero front and rear, zero thrust angle
• Front wind deflector and rear wheel skirts made from thin polycarbonate, aluminum duct tape, self tapping screws and 3/4″ aluminum band
• masking tape to cover all panel gaps / seams, passenger door handle (forgot to do the driver side door handle)
• removed passenger side mirror
• I added lightness by removing the passenger seat, spare tire and tools, floor mats
• 6 pound race battery.

EM: tell us about the driving techniques you used.

CHK: I had a small cooler with a little ice and a small towel to cool myself off as I drove with the windows closed and the AC off.

The race type suspension meant I had better momentum coming out of the turns so less need to gas after a turn.

Where safe, I took a classic race line to maximize momentum.  If I had to gas in a turn, I took the shortest line to minimize distance.

Pulse & glide where appropriate.

EM: Did you use fuel economy instrumentation?  Navigation?

CHK: The HF has an upshift light that I find annoying.  I used a Garmin Nuvi 760 to keep track of my average speed.

EM: Any plans for future economy competitions?

CHK: I suppose I have to come back in 2010 to defend my title with AMEC, but we will see what next year brings and if I still have the CRX.  If I do come back, it will probably have a boattail and I will be more careful with the fillup at the start and not spill any at the finish fillup.

EM: Chang, thanks for the interview and congratulations again on your win!

—

For more coverage of the AMEC event see the complete forum thread.

This weekend marked the third annual Adirondack Motor Enthusiast Club’s fuel economy competition, which takes place on the beautiful back roads just to the west of Albany, NY.

This was the first year that EcoModder came out to the event, and it was definitely a great time. Event organizer Mike Kamm included, 7 EcoModders came to the event and competed in two of the three categories.

The course was a 104 mile loop through the Adirondacks on winding roads that challenged not just the average ecodriver, but would challenge any driver. Unlike many fuel economy courses, this one had huge hills that challenged drivers to work hard and pick up mileage wherever they could.

All told, EcoModder took home 4 of the 6 awards its members were eligible for. In the diesel/hybrid category member tasdrouille took home first place in his 2000 Jetta TDI with an astounding 90 mpg. Second place went to Matt Herring in his new Toyota Prius, with an impressive 76 mpg over the course.

In the gasoline non-hybrid category, EcoModder had four competitors. Though Robert Smalls and Wonderboy did not take home prizes, they both got well over 200% of their EPA ratings. Robert drove his Subaru Legacy to a very impressive 47 mpg while Wonderboy made a record run of 65 mpg in his Civic EX.

I took home the 3rd place prize, with 83 mpg in my 91 Honda CRX, with my EcoModder co-founder Darin taking second place with a very impressive 106 mpg in his Pontiac Firefly (Geo Metro). The 1st prize went to Chang Ho Kim in his aeromodded 89 CRX, which shocked everyone with 118 mpg in his first fuel economy competition.

Also notable was event organizer Mike Kamm‘s 77 mpg Datsun B210. He would’ve easily taken the top prize in the historic class but instead decided to compete in the gasoline class and came in 4th place by less than  one-tenth of a gallon of gasoline.

Definitely an event we will be attending again next year!

Carbon Rally is a great site with a great idea: banding together to reduce our carbon impact on the planet. To compete you sign up, join a team, and take challenges, eventually posting up bigger numbers on the impact you have had.

Besides being a motivated bunch of green car enthusiasts, ecomodders also make their impact across the spectrum, so we thought it might be cool to set up our own team to band together and make a difference.

So, please check out our team and join up to make a difference.

This past weekend EcoModder was in Madison, Wisconsin, attending the ever-fun GreenDriveExpo powered by HybridFest. Though EcoModder was also in attendance last year, this year marked the first time members had competed in the MPG Challenge.

The course was challenging rural/downtown loop of approximately 25 miles that took the drivers on both low and high speed roads, which were peppered with with stop lights and stop signs. It was the sort of course that is perfect for hybrid owners with auto-stop, but less perfect for those of us with traditional gassers.

To ensure that drivers completed the loop at normal speeds without annoying the heck out of other drivers, a time limit of 51 minutes was imposed. Both of the competitors from EcoModder came in well below this time limit, but not so much as to suggest it is unreasonably slow.

In the end, the two EcoModders in attendance came in at 62 MPG and 65 MPG, which were a bit low due to rain and wet roads that affected the drivers that went out later in the day. Because the competition was run based on percent over EPA rating and not standard MPG, the 1991 CRX with 65 MPG came out on top, scoring something like 160% over EPA due to some advanced ecomodding.

Overall, a fun competition that brought out the best mileage in some cars and drivers. Hopefully we will see some of you in attendance next year!

This weekend is the 4th annual Hybrid Fest Green Drive Expo, a great event in Madison, Wisconsin, highlighting the present and future of environmentally-conscious motoring. For more details on the show itself, check out the Green Drive Expo homepage.

This marks the second year of EcoModder’s attendance, and this year promises to be even better. If you are in town, come check out the EcoModder booth, featuring my 1991 Honda CRX and the now-famous AeroCivic, both of which will be competing in the MPG Challenge Friday afternoon.

Discover the Truth About Green Transportation Options at the Fourth Annual Hybridfest Green Drive Expo

SAUK CITY, WISCONSIN   July 14, 2009   Automotive News    Print this News Release  RSS
(PRLEAP.COM) Madison, WI – The fourth annual Hybridfest Green Drive Expo begins in Madison this weekend. (July 18 & 19) It is one of the nation’s largest clean and sustainable transportation events. Visitors to the two-day show will be able to check out unique vehicles including hybrid cars, hybrid buses, plug-in hybrids, biodiesel, electric cars, electric bikes, propane conversions and more.

Hybridfest Green Drive Expo’s purpose is to promote awareness and understanding of hybrid electric automobiles and other alternative fuel vehicles. For more information about activities and festival times visit www.GreenDriveExpo.com.

This past weekend was the first (and only) Citicar World Gathering in Columbia, Maryland. If you don’t know, the Citicar was a small electric vehicle built in the U.S. between 1974 and 1983 before it was sold off and turned into Commutacar.

In attendance were three EcoModders, two of whom brought their own Citicars down to the event from Wisconsin.

As of this writing the event is still going on, so we can be sure we’ll hear even more once the EcoModders in attendance head home, probably even including some good videos from our HD video wizard, Ben Nelson.

Congrats to all the Citicar aficionados for a successful event!

This Saturday in Watkins Glen, NY was the annual Green Grand Prix, an event which celebrates fuel-efficient and alternative fuel vehicles. For the first time this year the event was split into two separate categories: the fuel economy competition and the time-speed-distance rally.

EcoModder had four vehicles come to represent the site in the fuel economy rally. Of those 4 vehicles (in three different categories), we took home three victories and posted the 1st and 3rd overall fuel economy numbers for the event.

The EcoModders

• 1998 Pontiac Firefly (aka Geo Metro): Darin Cosgrove (MetroMPG) took home 1st place in category 10, which housed all the out of production and weirdo vehicles. Although there was not a prize for it, he and his heavily ecomodded Firefly were recorded at 99.7 mpg and got the best fuel economy of any vehicle at the Green Grand Prix.
• 1991 Honda CRX: Benjamin Jones (SVOboy, author) pulled down 88.5 mpg, making it the third highest vehicle overall and winner of the 27-32 mpg (by EPA rating) class. The vehicle was sporting some hastily added ecomods as well as a lean burn engine swap and MPGuino.
• 1998 Honda Civic EX: Will Meredith (Wonderboy) has a lightly ecomodded Civic EX equipped with a Scangauge II to help tune the nut behind the wheel. The EX model was the least efficient Civic in Honda’s lineup that year, but Will still managed a very impressive 57 mpg with the car.
• 1993 Toyota Tercel: Tim Sullivan (McTimson) drove an unmodified 1993 Toyota Tercel. With only an MPGuino to guide him, Tim was able to ecodrive his way to victory in the 33-38 mpg class, rounding out the three victories for EcoModder.

The Green Grand Prix

The Green Grand Prix started at the Glen Motor Inn Motel outside of Watkins Glen, NY, a town well known for its racing heritage. The 77 mile course takes the drivers up Route 14 to Geneva and then down Route 96 back to Watkins Glen.

The course is mainly over roads with a 55 mile speed limit, and the drivers had 2 hours and 5 minutes to complete the fuel economy competition before incurring a penalty. Also included in that time was a mandatory 10 minute stop at a halfway point in Geneva, NY.

The course’s rolling hills were great for fuel economy and offered drivers and navigators a great view of Seneca Lake, one of New York’s famous Finger Lakes.

At the end of the competition drivers were monitored as they filled up in town and had their mileage recorded. These numbers were then used to calculate the fuel economy for the overall competition. Due to a number of factors, the most salient of which was fuel expansion, the numbers were a little high, but consistently so (except for the Priuses with their bladder gas tanks).

After the show all the competitors headed out to the local high school for the awards and vehicle show, which also included representations from local high schools that had competed in the Shell EcoMarathon competition.

Overall, the Green Grand Prix was a well-organized and great event. EcoModder will definitely be in attendance next year, hopefully with even more drivers. For more, check out the thread on the forums.

Photo: Shell

This year at the Shell Eco-Marathon Americas, over 40 teams and 500 people competed to go the furthest distance on a set amount of fuel. The competition was created to inspire students to design the most fuel-efficient vehicles in a variety of categories, most notable the prototype category. This year the top prototype vehicle took home the prize with an astounding 2,757.1 MPG.

However, that number was still short of last year’s record-setting 2,843 MPG, set by Mater Del Sol High School. For more on the awards, check out the official press release:

Prototype

Grand Prize – Combustion Engine

With mileage of 2,757.1 mpg (1,172.2 kilometers per liter) the Alerion Supermileage team from Laval University in Quebec, Canada won a US$5,000 grand prize with their vehicle, NTF 3.0.

Fuel Cell/Hydrogen

The Penn State University team from University Park, Pa. achieved 1,912.9 mpg (813.2 km/l) in its Blood, Sweat & Gears vehicle.

Solar Power

The Purdue Solar Racing team from Purdue University took first place with its solar vehicle, Pulsar, which achieved 4,913 mpg (2,088.7 km/l).

UrbanConcept

Grand Prize – Combustion Engine

With mileage of 433.3 mpg (184.2 kilometers per liter) the Mater Dei Supermileage Team from Mater Dei High School in Evansville, Ind. won a US$5,000 grand prize with their vehicle, Street Buggy.

Special Awards for the 2009 Shell Eco-marathon Americas

Achieving the best fuel economy in a category wasn’t the only way to win at the 2009 Shell Eco-marathon Americas. Teams were also given the opportunity to compete for one or more Special Awards, including:

Eco-Design Award

A special “Eco-Design Award” was presented to the UCLA team for their Prototype design. Their special design not only contributed to the fuel efficiency of their vehicle, but incorporated recycled and eco-friendly materials into the vehicle and production process.

Safety

The “Safety Award” recognized three teams who made the most extensive efforts to comply with the safety regulations of the Shell Eco-marathon Americas. This award went to UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico), Grand Rapids Technical School and Loyola Marymount University. These teams all demonstrated safety as a top priority in vehicle designs and construction.

Technical Innovation

This award was presented to three teams who demonstrated outstanding initiative and technical ingenuity along with optimal use of new materials in the drive train, chassis, instrumentation and tires. First prize was awarded to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, second prize to Purdue University and third prize to California Polytechnic State University.

Design

The 2009 Shell Eco-marathon Americas “Design Award” was presented to the Brazilian team from Minas Gerais State University. This award recognized their innovative design research related to ergonomics, aesthetics, choice of materials and technical feasibility. The originality and overall coherence of their design were also taken into account.

Communications

This award recognized the Dalhousie University team from Canada, who made outstanding communications efforts concerning the Shell Eco-marathon. All actions throughout the year are taken into account: participation at trade shows, creation of a Web site and all other activities that successfully promote the competition, its name, its founding principle, its educational aspects, etc. in the team’s country of origin.

Best Team Spirit

The “Best Team Spirit Award” was presented to the George M. Schurr High School team who fostered cooperation and collaboration among their team and others at the competition. Not only did they demonstrate initiative to learn more about other teams and contribute to the morale at the competition, they lent a tire to another team and helped a team in need whose car wasn’t ready to compete by loaning them one of their vehicles to participate in the challenge.

Perseverance in the Face of Adversity

The “Perseverance in the Face of Adversity Award” was presented to two teams – Chitkara Institute of Engineering & Technology in India and Louisiana State University. Both teams overcame many obstacles in order to make it to the Shell Eco-marathon Americas – the team from India not only traveled a very far distance to participate in the event, they also battled many issues with their vehicle, and the team from LSU overcame the loss of a team member, who passed away last year. The team dedicated their Shell Eco-marathon project to this team member, even naming their vehicle after her, Ellen.

The Cannonball run was one of those things I grew up wishing I could do, but knowing I never would. Well, now that I’m all grown up, it doesn’t seem like it matters anyway, because the Cannonball run isn’t done in the US anymore. Luckily, for entertainment’s sake, it’s still on in Europe, and this year there were some pretty interesting results.

This year’s winner was, somewhat suprisingly, a BRABUS-modified Smart car. The BRABUS package definitely gives the Smart a kick in the pants, but it’s nowhere near as powerful as some of the cars you’d expect to see. However, the European site does point out that “it’s not what you drive, but how you drive it.”

How did the Smart capture the glory?

Even though the other cars in the race were much faster, the Smart made the trek at an average of 61 mph by cutting down on stops. As one of the driver’s states, it was the car’s fuel economy and not its speed that allowed it to win the iconic endurance race:

The downfall of the bigger cars was that they were forced to stop so often, so while they kept overtaking us, we eventually went past them at the next petrol station when they needed to fill up again,” said David…. “We kept at a decent speed and still averaged around 35 miles per gallon.”

I can sympathize with this, as I often find myself passed by speeders on long road trips, only to pass them again as they fill up while I can cruise up to 700 miles on a single tank. Given the Smart’s success this year, I wonder if we’ll begin to see more people competing in fuel efficient cars in future Cannonball runs. I guess time will tell!

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Recently, I spent time at HybridFest, a car show dedicated to emerging green technologies and fuel economy. The kind of person who attends HybridFest is that same kind that talks around the water cooler about their MPG and how much money their hybrid has saved them. And this kind of person is exactly who companies like GM need to convince to buy their products.

That’s probably why GM was the #2 sponsor, right after Toyota. That doesn’t explain, however, why GM didn’t show up. Show organizer, Eric Powers, told me that GM representatives were on hand for dinner Friday night to kick off the show, which began officially on Saturday morning, but after that no one saw them.

Instead of putting their floor space at the show to use, GM chose to leave a musty old city bus sitting in the corner looking inconspicuous (see first photo). Not too many people wondered where GM was, but personally, I was excited to see what they’d have at the show to counteract the Toyota party van:

Seeing the GM logo on everything made me sure that at some point I would see GM there. But alas, it was not to be. There was no clash of automotive giants, and no GM reps to talk about upcoming designs with.

So, what happened?

Firstly, let me say that this article is not some cookie-cutter condemnation of GM. I have spent time with GM and discussed their plans, as well as test-driven their HCCI technology, and I can honestly say that there are a lot of smart people at all levels in the company working to rebuild their image and their product lineup as one that is fuel efficient and environmentally friendly.

We all know that GM is going through hard times, posting $15.5B losses and still two years away from releasing the earliest production models of the Volt, which they hope will be their saving grace.

Part of me hoped that GM would come to HybridFest with some surprise mock up of the Volt, or perhaps even one of their drivetrains strapped to the body of another car. I’d also hoped to strike up a conversation with someone from GM about the future of the Chevy Aveo, that small, affordable car that seems to get no media attention and surprisingly bad fuel economy (GM has promised to make it a class leader in 2009 with a total redesign, and I wanted some insight into this).

Another, perhaps pernicious part of me didn’t want Toyota to steal the show. I knew HybridFest would be like a Prius collectors show, but since I knew Honda wouldn’t be there I feared that Toyota would only increase it’s legacy as “the hybrid company.” Obviously, other companies can do it (and Honda did, with the Insight, which was released in the US earlier than the Prius and with better fuel economy), but somehow Prius and hybrid have become pretty much the same thing to some people.

Anyway, one can only assume that all the pressures weighing down on GM right now finally got to them, and caused them to back out. HybridFest is great, but it’s not like the media is buzzing with this story, so there has been little word of why GM suddenly disappeared.

What does this mean for GM?

Well, GM is in a tough place, but this wasn’t the right place to cut corners, I think. As I said earlier, the type of people that go to HybridFest are influencers and pushers. They want to brag about hybrid tech, take their friends on test drives, and change the way people look at fuel consumption. Sure, GM might have only reached a few thousand people, but they missed an opportunity, for just one weekend’s work, to have high-quality interaction with the people they are trying to win over to their side.

By not showing up, HybridFest allowed Toyota to dominate, with the only GM in sight (Honda pun!) being a modified Equinox that showed up with the University of Wisconsin. No one is impressed by a shallow advertising blitz talking about fuel-efficient truck hybrids. What GM needs to do is generate real, meaningful buzz around their products, and they need to do it at the grassroots level or else their efforts will just be passed off as another round of corporate greenwashing.

I will be in contact with the company soon about their future plans, and there marketing strategies, and am excited at the possibility to share that with you, so stay tuned.

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I’ve posted about HybridFest a few times already, but I just wanted to point you all in the direction of something I just wrote for Popular Mechanics about some of the neater things that could be seen hanging around HF 2008.

Anyway, I hope you join us next year, I know the event will be even better.

Sorry for being a little scarce recently, but it’s because I’ve been on the road with some of the other members of the EcoModder forums visiting HybridFest out in Madison, Wisconsin. Some of us were local, so the trip wasn’t such a big deal, but others of us (me!) had an 18-hour, all-night drive out from New Jersey. So, I hope you understand that updates have been a little scarce, to say the least.

EcoModder was a “Silver Sponsor” of HybridFest, which besides meaning we helped with the whole thing coming together, means we got to have a big booth where we showed my car, Ben Nelson’s electric motorcycle, and talked to everyone interested about EcoModding. I also gave a few talks about EcoModding, which I think helped connect us with some cool folks. In the image above, you can see me standing with my car before the event had even officially started. You can see more pictures on flickr.

Anyway, HybridFest was a great time, and I’d like to share with you a few of the highlights as I see them. I may take some more time to get into these things in longer posts, but if you were considering coming out, here are some of the great things you missed:

• The EcoModder booth: As I already mentioned, we had Ben’s DIY electric motorcycle and my 91 CRX attracting attention. I got so many questions about the “68 mpg @ 60 mph” sign that I didn’t have time to check out any of the speakers or any of the other booths!
• Toyota: Toyota was the biggest sponsor and brought a whole team of people to show several hybrid models as well as walk people through a gigantic pop our trailer bus. The sweeten the deal, they gave out non-battery LED flashlights (which you had to shake to charge up) and packets of seeds.
• GM: You’ll hear more about this in a post I will write tonight, but GM came to the opening dinner Friday night and then disappeared, abandoning a city bus, their floor space, and their sponsorship of the event.
• MPG Challenge: Evidently everyone expected the winner to win, but you can check out the results here. It was an open course, time-limited event, so definitely practical to real life driving…and with some amazing results.
• Prii: And I thought Hanover had some massive collection of the iconic hybrids…Everywhere you turned would be a different Prius with a different custom paint job and some sort of claim to fame.

I wish I could comment more on the other booths and the speakers, which I heard were great, but I spent all my time manning our booth and not too much time wandering around. However, it was definitely a great experience, and I urge you all to come out next year.

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That’s right, EcoModder is going to be at this year’s Hybrid Fest!  On July 19th& 20th I will be holding down the fort in Madison, Wisconsin. That’s quite a drive for me (925 miles from my home in NJ), but I think it will be worth it in order to hang out with some more people interested in green cars and new technology.

EcoModder will have its own booth, where we will show my CRX and Ben Nelson’s electric motorcycle. At the booth you’ll also be able to find information on ecomodding, ecodriving, and other highly modified cars. If you’re at all interested in something a little different, you should definitely come check us out.

You can find the schedule of activities here, but I think the most promising one will be the MPG competition the day before the official start. I don’t know if I’ll be able to participate because of my drive across country to get there, but look forward to reporters from co-founder Darin Cosgrove and my own fuel economy reports from the trip there.

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