Quote:
Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard
There was a time just a few years ago when my goal was to drive more than 500 miles on a tank of gas. Now I can say that I drove over 500 miles on a tank in 11 months out of 12 -- I missed by slightly less than 20 miles on my only tank fillup in January. I only pumped ~11.1 gallons, so I could have done it if the timing was different -- I like to always use the same gas station, and I was headed out on a longer drive that day.
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Your post reminded my of my recent epic fail at trying to set a new tank record. I've only had one tank over 500 miles since I started hypermiling and modding, but about a month ago I thought I was having a great tank. I was heading into town going to the bank and to run some other errands and my idiot light had been since I left the house. I was already over 490 miles and decided to run to the bank before filling up to try to hit the 500 mile mark. I did my banking business, rolled backward (in neutral) to get out of my parking spot, and tried to restart the car. The uphill angle of the car prevented the few drops of fuel in the tank from getting to the pick up and I was done for.
That led to the inevitable walk of shame to the gas station to buy a gas can and a gallon of fuel to get my car started. Brilliant! I should have known that I've never had better than 39.8mpg on a winter tank and I have to average 39.9 to get 500 miles from a tank. Ooops!