Ditching cruise control, big FE gain!

[19bonestock88]

So I did some highway driving today, and decided to not use cruise control on the interstate, because on hills it kicks the transmission into 3rd gear and the engine is running 4500RPM... Instead, I would cruise at 80mph and gradually feed in max throttle(without a downshift) as I start uphill... Even on hills, my lowest speed, unless influenced by traffic was around 70mph with 100% engine load at around 53% throttle position... FE was way up though; I averaged 37.8mpg over 90 miles there and 36.3mpg on the 90 miles back, with similar temperatures(around 90F ambient)... Only difference is that on the return trip, traffic was gridlocked for about five miles...

Previously,my best highway average was around 33.5 combined, with cruise set...

[Xist]

80 MPH? Is that the speed limit?

[19bonestock88]

Admittedly, it's not, the limit on the WV section of I-79 is 70mph, with one 65mph section...

Even worse, there were some downhill sections where I was cruising with traffic at around 90mph... Which makes the mileage I got pretty awesome... I also found that load based cruising on the interstate makes the car run cooler; I was contemplating opening my grille block further due to engine temps around 215F, but without allowing a downshift, temps were usually under 210F on hills, and around 195-200 on flat ground...

On the subject of speed, I have determined that while you can cruise past cops usually at around 10 over, they'll fry you at 12-15 over, hence the target speed...