2020 Green Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, NY

[jakobnev]

Where is all the video?

[Xist]

What would be the best 5-cylinder car to buy to place in a contest that is unknown to most people?

[M_a_t_t]

Hummer?

Sold a trailer today and the guy looked at the mercury and asked if I was competing in a mileage contest. Then he described the GGP, location and all. How ironic...

[jakobnev]

What would be the best 5-cylinder car to buy to place in a contest that is unknown to most people?

There's a car out there with a 1.8L 6-cyl that handles well, just saying.

(Best tank: 56.13 mpg, but over 60 on slower trips)

[brucepick]

Originally Posted by jakobnev

There's a car out there with a 1.8L 6-cyl that handles well, just saying.

(Best tank: 56.13 mpg, but over 60 on slower trips)

Is this a riddle where we're being challenged to figure out what car it is?

[jakobnev]

The Mazda MX-3 GS:

[brucepick]

Originally Posted by Ecky

If I had brought my K Sight, and scored around 60mpg, how would I have done?

I’d love to see you at the GGP. Bob G is hoping for a fall date for 2021.

This year there were only 20 cars due to Covid restrictions. Typically, 35-40.

Assuming it’s a 4-cyl, you would have been in a class by yourself. There were no other 4-cyl modded non-hybrids this year. A Miata ran in the Stock 5 or Less class, coming in at 40.4 mpg. If it’s a six, you again would have been in a class by yourself.

You can still see (on 10-26-2020) last year’s results at Green Grand Prix - Home
That will give you a better idea of a more typical year’s competition field.
And, when registering, you should email the organizer, Bob Gillespie, describing your car. It probably would run as a Modified, but might be if Exhibition. One deciding factor there is tire size. If it doesn’t match the door frame label, odometer distance is assumed not reliable, so I THINK the car is eliminated from the mpg scoring. But you should discuss with Bob - I’ve never been in the Exhibition class.

I’ve known Bob Gillespie since 2010. So if you become serious about entering, I will be glad to email him and give him a heads up. You and I could also discuss by pm here, or regular email.

[brucepick]

Originally Posted by jakobnev

The Mazda MX-3 GS:

That's pretty cool. They're not easy to find!
One of these would likely win the "more than five cylinders" class.

HOWEVER, remember that GGP management generally changes the classes as appropriate, depending on which cars are being entered. This year was the first time that the 6+8 cyl cars were combined into one class. That was perfectly reasonable, as there were only three in that class, and one of those wasn't able to make it to the event. So two cars competed for that award.

[brucepick]

Originally Posted by Xist

What would be the best 5-cylinder car to buy to place in a contest that is unknown to most people?

Here's a review. You need to click "View Gallery" to see the cars' info. https://www.caranddriver.com/feature...inder-engines/

The only production 5-cyl cars I'm familiar with are the Volvo front drive cars. Most of the 850s, and the S60, V60, S70, V70 series cars use either the NA or turbo version of the "white block" five cylinder. White block because of the aluminum block + head material, vs the cast iron blocks of the earlier 240-740-940 series.

However, those cars aren't at all famous for fuel economy. When I considered them (because we drove only Volvo 240s for about 13 years!), it seemed they got 28 mpg EPA, no matter which version I looked up. Nowadays, that's not very impressive mpg. Even with some mods and hypermiling, I doubt they can get what I consider "good" mpg. This year, Steve Z got 37.5 mpg in his stock 2011 'Vette.

[Grant-53]

Plans are in the works for the 2021 Green Grand Prix for April.