EcoModders featured in WIRED hypermiling article

[MetroMPG]

Hypermilers Push the Limits of Fuel Efficiency


Hey: Red's famous!



It talks about Red's goals for his rejuvenated Insight:

It was a heap when he bought it and he's overhauled just about everything ... "I'd like to hit 70 mpg. Seventy would be pretty sick," he says. "It's doable."

Definitely doable!

Also quoted: Rick (RH77), Tim (Daox), and your humble nenpimaniac gets a mention.

Following the speed limit was quite a change for [RH77], who favored high-performance cars before getting the hypermiling bug three years ago. "I knew I needed to slow down for both environmental purposes and not to scare the living daylights out of my passengers," he says.These days he's driving a 1998 Acura Integra and getting as much as 40 mpg in a car the EPA rates at 24.

Daox lays out how simple it can be, and what you can expect if you stretch further:

"If you combine a handful of simple hypermiling techniques, you can easily see increases of 20 percent," said Tim Fulton, a 25-year-old designer from West Bend, Wisconsin. "Use a few more techniques and 30 percent is yours."

He mastered "pulse and glide" -- turning off the engine and coasting while driving. "This technique alone dramatically increased my mileage from 38 mpg to 47 mpg on my first tank," he says. "I was blown away."

It's a good article that lays out the facts and avoids the sensationalism I've seen in other recent media coverage.

http://www.wired.com/cars/energy/new.../hypermilers09

[digitaldissent]

nice

[RH77]

I'm really impressed at how well-written the article is. Metro's right -- no sensationalism and just the facts. Great stuff!

-RH77

[Daox]

I agree, pretty well done.

[cfg83]

Red -

Congrats! With all the work you've done on rescuing the Insight, you've earned it!

(The rest of youz guyz too)

CarloSW2

[MetroMPG]

The comments below the article, on the other hand, contain the usual number of typical knee jerk "anti-hypermiling" responses.

[digitaldissent]

you are so right, as soon as I saw them I wanted to post on here!

[MetroMPG]

I don't know why so many commenters immediately assume that people who drive for efficiency are unable/unwilling to recognize when some techniques may be disruptive/discourteous for a given situation, and so not use them.

They seem to imagine anyone associated with the term "hypermiler" is pulsing & gliding at 35 mph down a 2 lane 55 mph highway at rush hour, ignoring the 7 mile long line of cars behind them. And drafting on the glides (the cars that manage to pass). And then taking the curves in the road at the limit of traction...

[Daox]

Its all the wonderful other articles that paint us as 'dangerous drafters and holder-uppers of traffic'. Its something different and people don't understand. When they get a bad explination thats all they have to go off of until someone sets them straight.

[MetroMPG]

"And then taking the curves in the road at the limit of traction..." in elementary school zones. In the rain. With the wipers and lights off, to save energy.