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California98Civic · 01-29-2014, 08:54 PM

Hi hi. Sorry for the disappointment.

As someone who grew up in and around NYC, lived for 10 years in VA dealing with DC regularly, and now has lived in Southern Cali for nearly 8 years, lemme say that I have driven--even hypermiled--the beltway and each of the rush hour traffic hells named already. I respect your comfort level and your assessment of what is safe, but I don't agree that it's objectively a fact that you can't drive 55 and 60mph on the beltway safely. That said, I'll concede there were a few spots on the western portions of the beltway that were a bit hairy. Maybe that's your zone. But other areas, no so much, IMO.

But we all judge our own comfort for ourselves.

I do think you need to pump the tires up more, since you're possibly not even at max sidewall, and you will have to reduce your RPM shift points to 2200 or so to get better results. That's what I do in my 98 DX, and it is what the legendary PaleCivic always did. Others have noted that 3000K rpm is too high for lean burn. If you want LB, you gotta try taller gears and/or slowing down.

Above all... keep at it! It takes a while to adjust to the new realities of this kind of driving, I think.

Cheers!

james

01-29-2014, 08:54 PM	#9 (permalink)
California98Civic Cyborg ECU Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Coastal Southern California Posts: 6,302 Black and Green - '98 Honda Civic DX Coupe Team Honda 90 day: 66.42 mpg (US) Black and Red - '00 Nashbar Custom built eBike 90 day: 3671.43 mpg (US) Thanks: 2,374 Thanked 2,176 Times in 1,471 Posts	Hi hi. Sorry for the disappointment. As someone who grew up in and around NYC, lived for 10 years in VA dealing with DC regularly, and now has lived in Southern Cali for nearly 8 years, lemme say that I have driven--even hypermiled--the beltway and each of the rush hour traffic hells named already. I respect your comfort level and your assessment of what is safe, but I don't agree that it's objectively a fact that you can't drive 55 and 60mph on the beltway safely. That said, I'll concede there were a few spots on the western portions of the beltway that were a bit hairy. Maybe that's your zone. But other areas, no so much, IMO. But we all judge our own comfort for ourselves. I do think you need to pump the tires up more, since you're possibly not even at max sidewall, and you will have to reduce your RPM shift points to 2200 or so to get better results. That's what I do in my 98 DX, and it is what the legendary PaleCivic always did. Others have noted that 3000K rpm is too high for lean burn. If you want LB, you gotta try taller gears and/or slowing down. Above all... keep at it! It takes a while to adjust to the new realities of this kind of driving, I think. Cheers! james __________________ See my car's mod & maintenance thread and my electric bicycle's thread for ongoing projects. I will rebuild Black and Green over decades as parts die, until it becomes a different car of roughly the same shape and color. My minimum fuel economy goal is 55 mpg while averaging posted speed limits. I generally top 60 mpg. See also my Honda manual transmission specs thread.