So yesterday and today were my first real treks on the freeway, being fuel conscious. So the first thing I did was set cruise control to 60mph, great, no one gets mad at me for going to slow and I can keep the RPMs down pretty low. Next step, lets try seeing what sort of hill I need to maintain this speed while in Neutral, sweet I don't need that much of a grade and I start to actually accelerate just a little.
The next step is what put me almost in tears with laughter. I decided to try getting behind a semi-truck and playing with a little drafting. Ok, so 100 ft behind the semi. Seems ok, but there is a little turbulence so lets try moving up as bit. Ok, now we're at 50 ft, cruising at about 65 mph and the RPMs are the same...hm, I wonder why that is, must be the minimum speed for the engine at 65 while still in gear...we can fix this. Put the car in neutral, o ok, this works, I'm not slowing down, must not have any wind resistance at this distance....wait...what the heck, I'm accelerating
, but I'm in neutral, how does that work...yea, road is flat...hehehe, there goes mile number 2 in neutral behind truck...and mile 3...awww shucks the truck is pulling off the freeway...but wow, I just cruised 3 miles in neutral at 65-70 mph, actually having to tap the brakes occasionally because I was apparently being sucked into the truck
Now, just for the record, I know that being that close to a semi is not very safe, however there wasn't any traffic so I felt confident there wouldn't be any sudden changes in driving behaviour from the driver since I had observed him for a bit at 100ft and he seemed pretty steady. BUT I DON'T RECOMMEND ANYONE TRY THIS. But I have to say, it was really very strange and very very entertaining to say the least...
I now have 420 miles on my trip odometer and still 1/4 of a tank to go. I'm usually out of fuel by 380-400...sweet.