New personal best (again) 40MPG!

[endurance]

Man, this place rocks. Two months ago I would have been thrilled to get 34mpg out of my little RSX-S, but thanks to my addictive personality, obsessive compulsive disorder, and the incredible wealth of knowledge this place has to offer, I just had my first 40mpg tank!

My focus this tank was to really concentrate on my climbing. Since I think I've done about as well as possible for my morning downhill commute, it seemed like the obvious next step. So, cue the momentum retaining strategy, hitting the bottom of the climb with a bit of extra speed, gradually backing out of the accelerator as the climb progresses. Admittedly, I still love to have fun while driving and there were numerous WOT accelerations to 70-90mph just because I can. Yes, there was that one surge up the 6.5% grade on the backside of Floyd Hill where I passed other cars at 90+mph and watched my MPG hover around 10.5 for a couple minutes. But otherwise, I really, really did try to behave myself this tank. Barring a few ego-induced moments, I'm really learning to drive.

Thanks everyone!

[Old Mechanic]

.

Now if we can just exorcise that WOT short circuit out of the cranial cavity, we just might see you get to 45. Maybe not with cold temps, but by next summer you might just get close to 50.

regards
Mech

[Weather Spotter]

keep up the good work

Going to do any mods for MPG?

[endurance]

Originally Posted by Weather Spotter

Going to do any mods for MPG?

Lower radiator hose heater, oil pan heater, improve aerodynamics on lower grill block (fiberglass), kill switch, garage door opener , LED lighting. However, we're coming into winter gas season and it's almost time to take off the summer tires and toss on the aggressive snow tires, so as Mech points out, this might be as good as it gets until spring. We'll see, I'm learning a lot right now and I just might benefit from lower speeds on icy roads this winter.

[SentraSE-R]

One ticket for going 90 mph should just about buy you half a year's worth of gasoline

[skyl4rk]

sounds good, keep having fun while driving!

[endurance]

I've been looking at my trip and daily mileage and it's really all about my unusual commute. For example, this morning on my drive into work I got 54.3mpg and on the drive home I got 29.8mpg, with a daily average of 37.7mpg. I doubt there's too many folks managing that wide of a spread between their to and from mileage, but it works for me. When I finally get a kill switch in, I'd suspect I'll manage another 2-3mpg (which will just about make up for my loss because of winter gas and snow tires).

[pounsfos]

your doing good, honestly stay off the w.o.t and you'll gain 3mpg easy, i tried it out last week , easy mpg much??

[endurance]

Originally Posted by pounsfos

your doing good, honestly stay off the w.o.t and you'll gain 3mpg easy, i tried it out last week , easy mpg much??

The WOT 4-5x per tank isn't nearly as bad as the 20 minutes of stop and go I had early on in this tank. Still gunna shoot for a long tank, but right now I'm at 37.7 with 300 miles down and only 3.6 safe gallons left (to 12 of 13.5 gallons).

The amazing thing was my 66 mile round trip today. Mid-day no traffic, got 56 mpg down, 36mpg back up the hill for an average of 44! Totally shocked with those results. Oh, and an average speed of 44mph with a max of 79mph.

[Weather Spotter]

Just goes to show how much driving style impacts MPG. It takes me from 32 to 42.