[Fat Charlie]

I start one of my morning commute EOCs at 60 mph. I used to start it at 70 until I found that the extra speed was just wasted gas- what with the contours of the hill and my car's aero, I end up at 60 on the top part, just over 50 in the middle and 60 again near the bottom. This morning I got passed by a pickup with a camper in the bed just before I got to the top. I goosed it to 70 and followed him down, doing between 62-68 the whole way. A mile and a half into a two mile EOC I was doing 8 mph faster than normal! I stayed with him through my next EOC, and he helped me carry enough speed that I went a lot farther than usual. That section is longer than I can reasonably coast and traffic is usually more of a consideration there, so I don't have any "normal" numbers for it.

Keep in mind that I don't draft closely. If something's big enough to be worth drafting, it's big enough to punch such a hole in the air that you can follow it at normal distances and still get a real benefit. What makes it drafting is that I understand the help that's there and I'm behind the rig on purpose to get that bonus rather than just being helplessly stuck behind a truck. It was nice to see a solid example of how much it can help, even though it was kind of depressing to see just how much aero my car is giving away.