So I get a call from my brother-in-law that he's stuck in the center of the city with a broken clutch and could I give him a tow. Sure!
No time to plug the engine heater in
I go outside, an d*mn it's cold! -4°C with a thick layer of frost on the windows, and even thicker on the outside. Scratch, scratch, scratch - I'm kinda in a hurry - scratch, but it ain't comin' off! So I cringed and I wept, but I started the engine. Yes, I will whip myself tonight. I even turned on the rear window defroster to raise the load on the engine. By the time I had got rolling my onboard computer was showing the max average trip fuel consumption - 30.0 liters/100km. I'm doing my best to
not hypermile so the engine gets up to temp asap, but the hot air blowing on the partially defrosted windshield is robbing it of most of its heat.
OK, so this trip is a goner
I finally made my way to where my bro-in-law is freezing, with lots of lights along the way (that's one of the reasons I prefer to bike to the city center, but today I
-er-, couldn't take my bike). We hook up his 1.5 ton car and start off, catching all the red lights except one (which I passed as it turned from yellow to red, but stopping on short notice wasn't an option when towing). I finally drop him off at my other bro-in-law (car mechanic) and drive him home. When I pulled into our yard the OBC said my trip avg was 5.4 l/100km. Not bad, as my car's official avg FC is 5.6. This was still enough to bump my tank average from 3.9 to 4.0, though
So here's what I noticed while towing:
- All the roads were more or less flat, except for one loong overpass. After struggling up it I didn't get to coast down, since bro-in-law kept touching his brakes. I dunno why? If I wasn't gaining speed, then neither was he. (See next point)
- I tried to coast on a few flat portions and I could feel the difference between my aero and his. Since the tow rope was elastic it wasn't a steady slowing down, it was a sudden jerk. Even though his car has less frontal area than mine, and was drafting very close, its higher rolling resistance and roof rack were killing everything
Not to mention his touching the brakes.
- Towing a car is probably the only excuse for going 10 km/h below the PSL and not being on the receiving end of nonstop road rage. Maybe I could rig up an ultralight, superaero dummy car to "tow" around?