Wow. Lots of information from the last couple of posts. It'll take me a while to digest all this. I'll probably come back to them quite a few times. For now:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ecky
-I find I get better economy the lower I shift. I've heard others report getting better economy by raising their shift points and accelerating briskly, but I personally haven't observed it. I'll throw my car into the highest gear it can take, as soon as I can, if I'm driving for economy.
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My car has a shift indicator, and it appears that, as long as the current speed is such that next gear will be at 1500 RPM, it wants me to shift. For a while now, I've delayed shifting so that I'm closer to 2000 RPM rather than 1500 RPM at the next gear. The turbo lag is especially noticeable under 1500 RPM, with a transition band from around 1500-2000 RPM, and at 2000 RPM I can get full torque.
I was basically afraid of lugging the engine (note this is a 3 cylinder engine), or of being in an inefficient region of the engine map. Maybe I should experiment with following the shift indicator's advice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ecky
-On the highway, slow and steady wins. With the stock motor it was very easy to keep it at 50mph and ignore other drivers. The new engine is capable of accelerating much more quickly and requires a lot more self control. I find myself really needing cruise control to keep my speeds down. For my vehicle, above ~50mph / 80kph, economy seems to drop off quickly. Below that, it seems more susceptible to environmental conditions, but slightly higher numbers are possible.
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Do you do P&G, or just cruise at a low load?
I've gotten so used to P&G that I just do it automatically. If I have the car in gear for too long, I start getting jittery. When I got this car I learned how to do a proper double clutch so I can engage back after a glide with minimal jerking. It's just too bad the car doesn't tolerate EOC.
However, I'm not sure how helpful P&G actually is -- and one of the things I had in mind with starting this thread was to figure out the optimal way to perform a pulse. This car is underpowered at low RPMs without boost, and the gearing is very tall (it sure could use a 6th gear), so maybe P&G is not really necessary -- especially considering I can't EOC it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ecky
-it probably doesn't need to be said, but around down, conservation of momentum yields large gains.
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This is something I do religiously. Maybe I'm doing everything wrong in terms of how I'm accelerating the car, but I'm sure I make up for it by properly conserving momentum.