[gizzardgulpe]

Exposition: Back in March I inherited a Cressida from my dad, who barely drove it. The previous owner mostly kept it garaged after it hit 100000 miles, and it now has a little over 180k miles. It was in decent condition for a 30 year old car, until my dad and sister let the car sit for a couple years in the sun.

I got it running, drove it from Idaho to Kansas, and now here I am, making mods and doing a thrice-weekly commute; 120 miles per day.

I've kept a fuel log, and the worst I ever got was 18 mpg on the last leg of my trip home from Idaho, doing 85 against a 30 mph wind.

Since then, I have:
1.) replaced the camshaft housing gasket that had an oil leak.
2.) replaced and flushed the coolant.
3.) removed the power steering pump.
4.) removed the belt-driven cooling fan and
5.) replaced with a manual-control electric fan.
6.) removed side mirror.
7.) reduced windshield wiper profile.
8.) added wind shields over the porous headlight housings.
9.) added belly shield.
10.) redirected intake to capture warm air
11.) almost finished an amateur paintjob.

Still on my list:

1.) Wheel skirts
2.) hubcap covers
3.) kammback

With everything I've done so far, I can now get a pretty reliable 27 mpg if I keep my speed around 60 mph. I have a few outlier mpg readings where I went hotrodding around the local lake or needed to use the air conditioning for a trip (got over 30 mpg once, but maybe wind conditions were better otherwise?). Still, my goal is to get over 30 consistently.

So, uh... what can I reasonably expect at this point? My wife's 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix gets 32 mpg easily if I drive it like I do my Cressida, and I haven't done a single mod to it (she won't let me. I tend to break things.), which surprised me at first because the engine is considerably larger. But then again, it's all high-tech electronic and has a much more aerodynamic body than my parachute of a Cressida.