Quote:
Originally Posted by wdb
Quoting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_(physics)
"[...] the power needed to push an object through a fluid increases as the cube of the velocity."
In short, if you're looking for a vehicle that gets better gas mileage at 70 than at 60, you are not likely to find it. |
My bad...
What I meant was, which vehicle would be better for a high speed highway trip.
If you took something like a Honda Insight II up to 100MPH and set the cruise, I imagine it's MPG would be down lower than the 40s would it not?
Now compare that to something like an Audi A3 TDI, or one of the VW TDIs at 100MPH. I would think that the diesel engine would attain a better MPG figure at these excessively high loads due to the nature of the diesels BSFC characteristics?
The reason I'm curious is because I'm moving soon to a remote community where the nearest destination is about 5 hours away by a very busy highway. It's a community of 80,000 out in the middle of nowhere where there is nothing to do on Friday at 5pm other than get on the highway and get the heck out of there for the weekend. It has been said that if you drive at less than 75MPH you would be endangering your life. I'm thinking that my slow and steady P&G routine would be out of the question, not to mention my girlfriend would pull her hair out, doing that for 5 hours...
I bet things like grill block, smoothed wheels, and under tray would make big gains in that scenario.
Disclaimer: I'm not saying that I would travel at these excessive speeds, but I would like to use them as a gauge for the purposes of this thought experiment.