Green Grand Prix, Watkins Glenn, NY USA - April 20-21, 2012

[sendler]

The Green Grand Prix at Watkins Glenn, NY USA in April looks fun. How often do you get to hypermile on a world class race track! Electrathons will also be there and take to the track in the afternoon. And, there is a 70 mile, over the road eco rally the next day. See you there.
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Welcome To The Official Green Grand Prix Web Site

[sendler]

Here's a video of Danica talking us through her lap at "The Glenn". The Green Grand Prix organizers mention the use of the shorter course so I assume this eliminates the hairpin and climb up to the Bronson Hill ridge so there should be no problem making it around at the required 50 mph with no brakes and no shifting and I may even consider adding some ballast to intensify the effect of engine off pulse and glide.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWsct...eature=related

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[JethroBodine]

WOO HOO! Now I have some real incentive to get my diesel swap rolling. I didn't make it last year, but I'm going to try much harder this year.

[sendler]

Here's the results from last year. The two Insights did well at 63 and 80mpg for the stock ones and 89 for the highly modified Alfred State competition vehicle. The best Prius brought back only 55. Someone had a custom vehicle that made it to 160mpg. The two wheeled division needs to do better as it was won by a Vespa with 80 mpg. I do better than that driving to work at 65mph.

[sendler]

Here's a report by the Insight guys that were competing last year.
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2011 Green Grand Prix results - Insight Central: Honda Insight Forum

[sendler]

The no drafting rule is stated as 50 feet following distance. There is still a lot of good air to be had at 60 feet if you get behind one of the sport utes. The cars were having trouble getting up the hills with out shifting. So, it is hilly.

[brucepick]

Looking forward to seeing you guys there!

Shifting definitely was part of the process for my car.
Lots of EOC (no surprise there).
First in class at 57.21 mpg! (see my avatar at left)

I have some improvements on tap for the 2012 GGP so if I'm very fortunate I'll break 60 mpg - I just don't know by how much. Unfortunately it's so d**n cold out right now, it tends to limit what I can do on the car till things warm up.

As for drafting - in addition to the 50 foot distance rule noted above, I need to drive my car the way I think it needs to be driven - I don't want to be stuck matching the speed of some other vehicle who is driving their own game.

Plus, I think that getting an advantage from another driver up ahead who is also trying for maximum mpg kinda defeats the aim. Why wouldn't we all just enroll a friend with a large-backed vehicle to drive ahead of us to "break wind"? I think that's not really the competition we want.

[sendler]

Originally Posted by brucepick

I need to drive my car the way I think it needs to be driven

Did you have room drive your own game with EOC? It looks pretty crowded out there.

[FXSTi]

This looks like a blast. I know I won't make it, but I have a question. Is the EPA rating based on combined rating? The up to 32 mpg class would then include my Fiesta which is rated @ 32 combined. It looks like a Porsche won that class at 32 mpg. Then again, I see where they base it off of the instrumentation,** which would suck for me. The Fiesta does not record during EOC, so the more I pulse and glide, the lower it goes.

Kirk

** Oops, only the hybrid are based off instrumentation.

[JethroBodine]

There was a thread on this run last year here . It has an elevation map and a description of the fueling process.