This past weekend I visited a friend in the upper peninsula of Michigan and my goal was to get there and back on one tank. The route I chose was 890 miles round trip, and thanks to MetroMPG, I learned I would need to drive 50 mph to achieve my goal. The Honda Insight's tank is rated at 10.6 gallons, and that's what I based my goal on. I filled up before I left Illinois, once I arrived in Michigan, when I left Michigan (since I had to drive around while in Michigan to show my friend my new car), and when I arrived in Illinois. I used two gas stations (one in Illinois, one in Michigan) and my goal on the two fillups that counted was to fill up with less than 5.3 gallons.
Results:
First leg-
462 miles
5.389 gallons
85.73 mpg
Second leg-
428 miles
5.125 gallons
83.51 mpg
Overall-
890 miles
10.514 gallons
84.65 mpg
Driving technique-
=>Lower speed pulse and glide with EOC until I reached the highway
=>Maintain leanburn and drive with load on highway at 50mph +/- 5,10,15mph depending on hill
=>for large hills I pulsed up them in 3rd gear and glided down with the engine off
=>Driving without brakes, of course
Notes:
=>Driving 50mph in a 65mph zone was surprisingly not difficult, and most drivers anticipated me, so I didn't get too many angry people.
=>Lean burn is almost impossibly hard to maintain over long distances, especially over the course of a ten hour drive
=>Roads in Michigan feel like they are covered in molasses. The only way I could maintain speed on a flat road in some cases was being in 3rd gear at 50mph
=>My second route was shorter because my first route was purposefully chosen to avoid Milwaukee. After the first fillup though, I needed a shorter distance to achieve my goal (requiring to drive through Milwaukee), and luckily it worked out.
=>made my goal with
0.086 gallons to spare