Hey all, I'm new here, and have been lurking for a while and finally made an account.
My ride is a 1995 Audi A6 Quattro- 2.8L V6, AWD, 5 spd manual, 185K miles. Anyway after applying a few hypermiling techniques, I managed to get 31MPG out of my last fillup, which I don't think is too shabby.
Anyways, on to my question. I live in a rural area in Ohio, and usually can travel on relatively flat roads. However sometimes I am forced to travel on a very hilly/curvy road- and by hilly, I mean REALLY steep hills, which is the basis of my question. On a couple of the downhills, I go down in 4th in order to be going slow enough to make the corners at the bottom (avoiding brakes). Going back up hills, I try to gain as much speed as possible before starting up the incline. Anyways, my question is, on the really steep uphills, is it more beneficial for my FE to leave it in 5th, and put the accelerator to the floor in order to make it to the top (usually at/around 30MPH at the top), or downshift to 4th or 3rd and not have to put the pedal to the floor?
I would get a ScanGauge and test for myself, but...I'm 17 years old and don't have a job, so I don't exactly have $150 laying around for one...yet, though.
I would appreciate any input...thanks a lot