Quote:
Originally Posted by Xist
How much of that would be inertia versus friction? Would my car coast in neutral worse just because of all-wheel drive?
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The more mechanical drag it has, the worse it'll coast of course.
Less weight means less coasting, too.
The added energy you get from the extra weight, more than makes up for the increased rolling resistance due to the same weight.
My li'l VW up! and the 400kg heavier (!) Volvo V50 have the same Cd - 0.32 - but on the downhill in a tunnel on my commute, the V50 gained speed easily whereas the up! hardly picks up a few kph when coasting.
The up! keeps feeding in 1.1 kg/100km CNG when on CC @ 100 kph.
Idle while coasting down is 0.4 kg/100km.
The V50 would cut the fuel off completely
and still pick up a few kph despite the CC.
The up! shines on the uphill part though
With the up! I'm not at the optimal tyre pressure yet, but so far, all coasting distances seem to be quite a bit shorter.