I discovered hypermiling by being seriously broke and needing to do my normal $2o/week driving for $10/week for 2 months. A quick goggle search on fuel economy brought up a very weak overview of hypermiling that basically said "coast on the downhill and up to stop lights and stop signs." Okay I'll try it I said I have a 5 speed car so coasting is easy and my route to work is all up and down hills with 5 stops. Well it worked. Partially because I was able to coast about 1/3 of the time while still hitting the speed limit and because my previous driving style was ahh...sporty. Also I dropped a grade of the gas I was using so I got a little bit more for my dollar.
I was amazed and thankful that it worked because when I tried to bike it there was no way it was going to work just to many hills. I did make it to work on the bike and even on time, but i was too worn out and bruised in very uncomfortable places.
Oh and my car is dun dun dun daa....a 5.0 police package mustang
So where am I now? Initially I considered building an ebike for work commuting and might yet because I've become fascinated with EV's. Also a bike could be very enjoyable with help on the hills and a MUCH more comfortable seat. A friend offered to sell me his 2 year old Yamaha scooter at a serious discount since he's upgrading to a motorcycle. That would work...sort of but it wouldn't fill all roles and I would have 2 vehicles to insure and get inspected, ect. hmmm.....
I started doing research and eventually found this site and spent countless hours reading the posts. I basically see two paths one buy a Geo (no I have no interest in owning another Honda) , remove the unnecessary stuff and adjust the nut. This would involve finding a car that is an unknown and hoping for the best. I've been down this road before and it had a lot of pot holes but for max gas mileage this is the path.
The other path is the answer to the question "how MPG can a V8 mustang achieve?" I saw the 115 MPG mustang and I was rofl. Horsepower and torque are functions harnessing a chemical explosion into mechanical energy. The bigger the explosion (more gas and air) the more power an engine makes at a given RPM. So he claims almost double the factory horsepower and 5 times the FE? I call BS! I don't care if he is using an adjusted scale for ethanol I still call it. The only thing I see that that he has going for him is he has a notchback which is the lightest 5.0 ford made (3100 lbs according to my door tag). end of rant
So how much can a 5.0 LEGITIMATELY achieve? It's an interesting question and will probably be the path that I take for now.
My apologies for the length of a post that was I just supposed to be saying hello but my brain just started churning and I couldn't help myself. cheers!-gw