Rise of the Evil Pumpkin

[trikkonceptz]

Well I am officially one tank into my new ride and boy am I impressed with the Scion xD's potential.

42.7 mpg tank average.

Mind you, I haven't driven a manual vehicle consistently for some time, so I have room to improve my technique for sure.
I will comment that the vehicle with its electronic steering responds beautifully to EOCing and the bump starts in 5th are so smooth I have to look down to make sure its back on.

This time I am going to push its limits stock before I start adding or removing parts to increase the FE. I'd like to set a proper baseline with the drivers talents maxed out.

Bring on the summer fuel ...

[Daox]

Very nice. It'll be interesting to see what the xD can do! I'm pretty sure you can hit 50 w/o mods.

[trikkonceptz]

Originally Posted by Daox

Very nice. It'll be interesting to see what the xD can do! I'm pretty sure you can hit 50 w/o mods.

Thats my goal, the draw back is that I will be doing a lot more city driving with it too as we give the 4-runner a rest.

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi,

My wife drives an automatic xD ("Josepha" in my avatar) that has not managed that sort of mileage in a while. I've taped up the upper grill completely (and the "brake cooling" intakes, too), and bought some 16" smooth wheel covers (from Hubcap Mike's), and these seem to help somewhat.

[trikkonceptz]

Hi Neil,

remember I'm geographically cheating. The weather here never dips below 60 for more than 12 hours and the tallest hill I climb is an over pass. So I pretty much have ideal conditions for eco driving.

[Tango Charlie]

Isn't driving around with those gaping holes in the front of your car just KILLING you?

[MetroMPG]

Nice start, Trik. Looking forward to watching how far you push it.

[trikkonceptz]

Originally Posted by Tango Charlie

Isn't driving around with those gaping holes in the front of your car just KILLING you?

Yes ... LMAO, I may break my word and cover them this week. 2 tanks is a good enough baseline right .. LOL

I have black ABS to cover the seemingly flat grilles, from the back this time. and admitedly, I ordered my moon disc covers this afternoon.

I will resist the temptation to mod to get good baseline data, but it is really hard .... LOL

On the plus side though, the scangauge gods gave me just enough slack to run the cable from the plug up the A pillar through the headliner in order to mount the scangauge on top of the rear view mirror.

[Daox]

I think we need some pics of the stock pumpkin. Let us see what you're working with.

[trikkonceptz]

Fair enough .. Here is what it looks like. Mind you this is not my car, but a friends. My car is identical except that I do no thave the roof rack or the rain guards, I will have smooth hub caps though and yes they are lowered 1.5" from stock.




Notice the tiny little windshield wiper on the pax side, yeah, that'll be gone shortly.