Friendly Wager: 60 mpg 95 Mercury Tracer

[Frank Lee]

Tracer owner here, except mine is a '99.

60 mpg @ 55 mph ain't gonna happen. It simply ain't.

60 mpg could happen at well under 55 mph. Even with the a/t. And no boattail or such.

Re: fuel pump: a couple runs to dry shouldn't hurt anything. As proof I give you my F150 that has dual tanks. I run one tank dry as in the engine sputters and bucks and the CEL comes on, then I switch to the other tank and continue on my merry way. I've been doing this since 1994. Still have factory pumps and tanks.

Re: spares: been covered. Fail.

[Tahoe_Hybrid]

the spare tire needs to have more grip it's narrower that is why


but i'd go with tall tires to lower the gear ratio you will need a GPS to calculate the miles you driven though...

[RedDevil]

Weight reduction, thinner oil, PS delete, A/C delete, tires at 60 PSI (more hardly helps but could cause trouble), alternator delete?

[2016 Versa]

I've got a '94 Escort which is the same car but with the Ford badge. I've had tanks as high as 40 MPG out of it in stock configuration and of course that included several cold starts over the duration of the tank. Are you saying you can't coast at all even with the engine running? If so that's going to be a big disadvantage. I don't do P&G or EOC but I do lots of coasting on downhill grades where I can maintain my speed. The big advantage to being able to do this is this car is equipped with DFCO so if you have a 1/2 mile downhill grade you can travel that 1/2 mile using no fuel. Being the time of year you've got to do this it's going to be colder temperatures I'd suggest testing a WAI. Anytime I've broke 40 MPG on my '94 has been in really warm summer weather. I also agree you'll need to get those tires pumped up. I've not done any aero mods so I can't help you there.

[M_a_t_t]

I changed the spark plugs and wires. Plugs definitely needed it and the wires were at a higher resistance than I expected given their length. Total was $28.52



Cripple Rooster: Stock weight is 2404 lbs curb weight

2000mc: Thank you for the chart, 40 mpg @ 55 in stock form I think I have a decent chance. Atleast of getting above 50mpg.

Frank: The best loophole I've found so far is that I need to go the speed limit (not necessarily 55), but 60 mpg in town is going to be harder to get. I need to find the best route that includes lower speed limits and little to no stop signs.

Tahoe_Hybrid: The current tires are in pretty good shape so I don't have plans of changing tires or rims right now.

RedDevil: The ecomodder in me wants to see what I can do with just aeromods and then given time I can remove systems. Definitely weight reduction and thinner oil though.

2016 Versa: I think the reason they said no coasting was because of the speed limit and not slowing down traffic. Which means if I P&G while maintaining a 55+ avg mph I think I've cleared the rules.

In the thread "5th generation civic hatchback improving aerodynamics"post #258 AndrewJ (OP) says that he can coast for a good 10-15 seconds and only drop 5mph. So I am thinking at least test, but maybe final method, P&G 50-65 mph.

[elhigh]

Well, it ain't gonna happen. Not to be a naysayer because I dig your gumption, but there's way too many stumbling blocks preventing this from working out.

1) Indiana + winter = fuel mileage falls off. I hate how much my mileage fades in winter and I'm just in TN where we sometimes hit mid-50 daytime highs in winter, your conditions are going to be worse.

2) Automatic. Yipes. I found a PDF that goes pretty in-depth into the F-4EAT in your car but I'm typing on a Kindle right now and the idiot thing won't let me paste the link. I'll come back later and patch that in. I'm thinking about a TC lockup switch that would command lockups at will, pick up a few efficiency points earlier as you're pulling away from lights. Say, get it up to 2nd and command the lockup. I'm wondering if you could also jigger the shift points at all. I don't know, I just found the doc; I haven't read it yet.

I think your best chance of winning the wager is the lowest speed you can find that will satisfy the conditions of the bet, and try to run it all with the prevailing winds. Aero mods will help. But since it's a friendly wager, I think you're going to wind up owing your friend a pizza (or whatever).

[Piotrsko]

I will go out on a limb here and say YES you can attain that goal, BUT you wont by the time constraints unless you have a ton of free time and $$$ for tuning everything.

Buy them a pizza, but continue. Many times I proved people wrong, it's kinda what I do in life but sometimes it's really hard.

[Xist]

Who put four spares on his Insight?

[RedDevil]

As an ultimate if-all-else-fails resort and considering you bought the car just for the attempt, you could pop and lock one drive shaft to use the diff as a 2:1 overdrive gear to the single remaining driven wheel. So you can pootle along at ultra low revs.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Even if you don't reach the 60MPG goal within the timeframe scheduled for this bet, would be cool if you still tried it after. Maybe you can learn from this experience, and see where you could apply some improvements which you won't do for this first attempt.