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Old 08-28-2011, 07:16 PM   #3 (permalink)
320touring
Master EcoModder
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: scotland
Posts: 1,434

The Mistress - '88 Bmw 320i Touring SE
Team m8
Last 3: 27.17 mpg (US)

Germany Beadle - '91 Mercedes 300td (estate, N/A)
90 day: 24.63 mpg (US)

The Bloodylingo - '05 Citroen Berlingo Multispace Desire
90 day: 39.77 mpg (US)

Shanner Scaab - '03 Saab 9-5 estate Vector
90 day: 26.19 mpg (US)

Clio 182 - '05 Renault Clio RS 182 182
90 day: 31.73 mpg (US)
Thanks: 90
Thanked 95 Times in 79 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5 View Post
How much time is spent on the highway vs in town driving? This should dictate where you expend your efforts. If you do a lot of stop and go, then reduce the weight. If you spend a lot of time driving fast, then reduce aero drag.

You have a lot of room in that engine bay and I wonder if you could easily retrofit a turbo. There has been some interesting discussion of turbo charging a car for efficiency, but I still have my suspicions that you would be doing well to even maintain your current MPG.

All of your ideas sound easy and cheap enough to me, and I'd be curious to see your results.
Hi, Thanks for your response!

To answer your question- the car currently does approx 75% Motorway and 25% in town driving..However the Motorway driving is often Rush hour, so stop start. Hence me thinking that weight reduction would yield some gains.

Regarding a turbo- I'd shy away from that modification for the following reasons
1. Need for aftermarket management
2. Temptation-my previous car (saab 9-3) was a turbo, and I found myself tempted by boost!
3. Sourcing even a 2nd hand turbo and associated parts would possibly blow the £250 budget
4. Adding complexity can be counter productive- the engine size is adequate for the size of car. its just a pity that the peak HP/torque are so high in the rev range on this 16v engine

I am, however interested in the possibility of timing up the cams differently to give more low end torque-would that produce similar effects?
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US MPG for my Renault Clio 182


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