Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
Seems a jerk move to pull you over when you were trying to approach normal speeds, and a semi would certainly be much slower.
I have all the patience in the world for someone trying to do the speed limit, and none for the timid driver who is simply afraid of getting within 10 MPH of the limit.
|
Perhaps, although he did seem sincere. I didn't try arguing though. It was probably a combination of the lower speed, moderate smoke coming out the tail pipe and the use of my flashers. Maybe he's never been across the Rockies in an older economy car and doesn't realize there are cars with less than average power. Maybe he didn't realize it's a diesel or that older diesels produce smoke without burning any oil. I have found people that didn't know that there were diesel powered cars and at times don't even believe me that my car runs on diesel, including gas station workers who were concerned that I'm putting diesel fuel in a car.
I even had one guy following stop where I stopped to let me know that my car was burning a lot of oil. That was back when the car was still apparently tuned for sea level operation, but since then I turned back the maximum injection so that at these altitudes I can't feel any power difference, but at the same time I've reduced the black cloud effect greatly. Since I normally drive at 7,700ft and up that's about 25% less air and therefore should be tuned to squirt 25% less fuel under full throttle. One ecomod that could be done is to figure out a way to automatically adjust the maximum injection as altitude changes. Either that or a turbo charger.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroMPG
Crazy story!
Were there no trucks on this road also struggling to keep to the limit? Was the cop issuing warnings to them about impeding traffic?
|
Loaded trucks would definitely have trouble getting up (and down) this pass. Even school buses would not be able to get up this pass at the posted speed limit. If I remember correctly, I followed a truck down this same pass once that wouldn't go over 25mph. And going up I'm sure some have to drive that slow. The pass has a dedicated passing lane for going up the whole length of the pass.