Quote:
Originally Posted by YeahPete
I approach hills alot different than you guys. What I do is "coast down the hill" really slow and "POWER" over the next hill. I just floor it up the hills about 80% throttle and when I get to about 10mph over the speed limit I pop into nuetral and coast down and as far out until im going about 5 mph under the speed limit. Slower if no ones behind me.
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Yea but see the problem is you're going faster at the top! Higher speed = more drag = bad. Aside from the inherently increased load from the hill, it's the same principle as on flat ground, higher speed = less mpg. 60% load is not much worse for efficiency than 80% load, but going 10mph faster is a lot worse for efficiency! Of course if your car has a larger engine then maybe it could be better to just go a little faster to increase load on the engine on the hill.
PaleMelanesian, I'm surprised your engine works so well at low rpm! It's like freaking magic to me... Maybe it's just that my engine is in bad shape :/ Rolling in 4th gear at 800rpm is 55mpg, rolling in 5th is only 40mpg. If I'm under 1200rpm, accelerating in 5th is almost impossible (lots of groans and vibration, tach needle barely moves up until it's over 1200). I noticed that the groans get better after the engine warms up though, kinda weird.