Encountered a fellow urban coaster yesterday

[JRMichler]

I saw another eco driver recently. He was ahead of me while going through two roundabouts without once touching the brakes. I was able to do the same. Nice thing was nobody behind me, so nobody got held up.

[wmjinman]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

The Riviera is heavy and it has relatively low drag; if I am remembering the right model.

Yes, it's the "generation 8", made from '95 to '99, and I believe they're around 4000 lbs. and have a Cd of .31 or so. I suppose that is a good combination for extra-long coasts.

And I think Old Mechanic is right about the torque converter completely "un-locking" during a power-off coast, too .... I have shifted between "neutral" and "drive" while coasting without being able to detect any difference at all.

[justme1969]

I started adding to that now mabe its extreme or even illegal but I shut car off also.
I have a stick shift Kia that I disconnected the power steering from so there is no ill effects felt by me. I go into work a little early so as to take my time and cruise@67mph on hiway. I have 45 miles of slightly rolling interstate hills and 6 stop lights 3 signs.
At night my lights flick off for 1 second as I switch off ignition when going down hills or coasting a stop light.
Works well and if light switches fast I nudge it into 4th and car rolls on with little lost.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !
This is not recomended for everyone! test your car in a safe location first you may suffer steering, and brake losses!!! My car does not have these issues now Ive modified it with a second inline brake booster check valve and run purely upon the rack and pinion no hydraulics.

[Sven7]

Originally Posted by JRMichler

I saw another eco driver recently. He was ahead of me while going through two roundabouts without once touching the brakes. I was able to do the same. Nice thing was nobody behind me, so nobody got held up.

Haha, am I the only one on here that tends to treat empty roundabouts like autocross courses? Outside, heavy on the brakes, downshift, turn in late and gas it like no tomorrow...

There's a highway near me that has several roundabouts in a row, each connected by a quarter mile or so of straight road. I end up jetting through the corners and coasting in between. Figure it probably evens out.

Only ever met one other hypermiler on the road, and the Probe wasn't really even modded much (comparatively) at that point.

[Fat Charlie]

My favorite way through the circle is EOCing.

[user removed]

The thing I did not like about the Riveria was the dang thing just put me to sleep if I drove it for more than a couple of hours. I think I averaged close to 28 MPG in mine without any real hypermiling other than coasting. Even at 75 MPH it was like sitting in your living room couch and watching the world go by. It was the same platform as the Olds Aurora with the Olds being a 4 door. It would have been neat to see what the Riviera would do with the Olds engine which was a version of the Cadillac Northstar V8. I think it was 4 liters in the Olds. I think the empty weight was 3800 pounds.

regards
Mech

[wmjinman]

Yup, that's how the Rivieras were, alright. Like sitting in an easy chair with the controls of a sports car in your hands. I've gotten terribly sleepy in this one, too.

I'm in a forum dedicated to "Riviera Performace" that concentrates mostly on these "generation 8" Rivvies, and there seems to be a consensus that the Olds Aurora engine is inferior to the 3800 Series-2 supercharged plant the Riv has. Someone had asked for opinions about doing an engine swap transplant with an Aurora engine, and several of the more experienced people responded that he'd be dissappointed - that he'd actually be losing performance, and especially in power-to-weight ratio.

I have no personal knowledge of any of this, never even drove an Aurora, but that's something I remembered from the Riviera Performace Forum.

[rajadaja]

I love coasting to lights and trying to time it so I have maximum speed and still a comfortable following distance. Do you ever feel like the person in front of you is purposely waiting extra time to take off because they are hoping to steal your momentum? Ha ha, yeah that's a bit paranoid I guess. I would like to see more sensors so I dont have to stop at red lights when no cross traffic is even visible, particularly when I am on an incline or at the bottom of a hill! Oh, another trick I've tried is picking the LONGEST line if we are stopping at the bottom of a hill. This way I can get at least a couple car lengths of gravity-assisted acceleration before I hit the intersection. With red lights at the top or middle of hills I try to coast as close as possible to the intersection so I have the shortest uphill distance once the light turns green

[JethroBodine]

Today, I coasted up( down really) to a stop light in the right lane with a Volvo 18 wheeler in the left lane, when I heard the driver of the truck shut off the engine and set the emergency brakes. The light had just turned red as we approached and it is a fairly long light, but I've never heard of a truck shutting off the engine at a stop.

[MetroMPG]

Neither have I.

I've never heard another car driver shut off/start up at a long light either.