Quote:
Originally Posted by Fingie
Not bad.
I Wonder why there is no econo version of the FR-S/GT86 as it's spiritual precedessor, the ae86 had a sistermodel called AE85, which was pretty much a simplistic econobox.
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Because it's a Subaru, and the only other engine in the Subaru lineup is the FB20, which would have to be reworked for a longitudinal setup with the Aisin transmission. As is, the FR-S is already very cheap and very fuel efficient (as I've shown, the main weakness is the poor low speed efficiency and weight, which makes it only average in city conditions), so there's no reason to downgrade it further.
In Japan they do sell a more barebones version with a 3.7 final drive no LSD, 16" wheels. That thing probably gets Prius fuel economy on the freeway. If you really want I think it's the same diff that the IS300 came with, but I've come to appreciate the torsen LSD a lot, and besides the car does struggle a little at low rpm. The engine would need a retune to cruise efficiently with the taller gears too.
Either way, at 30 dollars a fillup (that's with 91 here in California) which I've done like 4 times in the last half year, fuel cost is not on my mind at all, because this car is just too efficient and I realized what I pay to park the car in San Francisco is what it costs to maintain a Porsche 911 or Aston Martin or Maserati or something like that. Hell, 2 hours at the parking meter anywhere in SF is 2-3 gallons of fuel.
Kind of makes me want to grab a gas guzzler like an old-ish 911 or V8 M3 or some other horrendously thirsty European V8 and ecomod
that. It would be way more fun to ecomod because turning a 15-20mpg car into a 20-25mpg car saves a ton of money, and those cars burn through their gas tanks fast enough that stopping for gas gets annoying. A narrowband emulator for lean burn would be worth it in that case, and tuning would be so much fun
The thirstiest cars I've seen around here are some of the trucks/SUVs, Crown Vics, and V8 Mustangs, but the V8 Mustangs have a pretty tall cruising gear, whereas old European cars will run their V8s at 2700rpm without cylinder deactivation on the freeway and get <20 mpg. You could try crazy things like forcing open loop and deactivating injectors for DIY cylinder deactivation (although maybe not a good idea on a more expensive motor).
As far as a decontented Toyota goes, the S-FR concept is going to make it to production with a 1.5L 2NR-FKE engine which should be extremely fuel efficient, since it has the new piston coatings, cooled EGR, wide angle VVT, pulling a 1 ton car. However since it's a shorter car (length) at the same height the aero is going to be worse. With some mods I bet that car can average 45 or even 50 mpg, because similar weight MR2 Spyders with less efficient engines could average high 30s with a 6 speed transmission in the hands of an efficient driver. I'd like to see one of the more skilled hypermilers here get one of them
If I didn't have such a strong preference for mid-engined sports cars, I'd buy one because the pint sized <1 ton cars are so much fun to drive, but I'll be waiting for the next Lotus Elise or the rumored Honda "baby NSX", assuming they ever make it to production.