Green Grand Prix, Watkins Glenn, NY USA - April 20-21, 2012

[Gasoline Fumes]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Gasoline Fumes (already went today?)

Yep, and I've decided to go back Saturday despite the predicted weather. It's not that far for me.

[JethroBodine]

No Go. Car not running at all now. Wiring/ECM?

[JethroBodine]

Found problem. Broken wire inside insulation, power to the ECM. Fixed. Did bodywork instead of driving.

How did everyone do?

[sendler]

Beautiful sun and 70 but windy on the track Friday. Pouring rain and 45F for the over the road rally on Saturday.
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138.5 miles / 1.026 gallonsUS = 135.0 mpgUS
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Green Grand Prix on the track at Watkins Glen, NY USA. 45mph average speed, 90% tuck laying on tank bag, three hour event, with full on Pulse And Glide and Engine Off Coasting. Probably posted the best actual fuel economy of all the vehicles competing but won't get credit for it as the vehicles without built in computers were required to calculate the fuel usage by the total weight lost using scales. This was totally inaccurate. I did my own tank fill in town before and after to get the real numbers.
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97.2 miles / .988 gallons US = 98.8 mpgUS
Home and back between days at Watkins Glen.
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89.5 miles / .88 gallons = 101.7 mpgUS
Over the road rally at Watkins Glen. Pouring rain and 45F. With observed fill ups. The guy in the Heinkel whipped us all with 124 mpg. Thanks to all the organizers and the army of volunteers.

[low&slow]

Sendler, Congratulations on a great run!! How much different was the wieght calculation off from the tank top-off? Hopefully you were able to share this info with the event organizers. SOunds like a very cool event , wish I was closer to it.

[smokey442]

Happy to report I won my class. (truck) If I did the math correctly got around 40mpg on the road course. Pretty decent when you also consider it holds the land speed record at Loring AFB in Maine. Had a lot of fun. How did you do?

[smokey442]

Some how my last post deleated message to Bruce. It was nice to meet you. How did you do?

[sendler]

The scales weigh only to the whole pound and were also about plus and minus 1 pound accurate. Each. Times four pads. They weighed me before and after at 10 pounds of gas use but I only used 1.026 gallons. The guy next to me with a diesel swap Insight was weighed at 5 pounds. That would have been .7 gallonsUS for 185 mpg! He knew that was way wrong so when we started talking about the scales he remembered that he and his co driver each drank a bottle of water that was in the car for the first weigh in which would have put him at 4 pounds of use. Another serious competitor with a diesel swap Metro was crushed and refused to get off the scales when they weighed him at 13 pounds. That would have given him 66 mpg. He had an X-Prize type removable fuel cell in his trunk that was fill to the brim accurate and brought his own fuel and graduated cylinder to the track. His tank fill method gave him 86 mpg.
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The density of No. 2 diesel fuel is 850 grams/liter = 1.874 pounds/liter = 7.15 pounds per US gallon. Regular gasoline is considerably less dense: 6.0 to 6.3 pounds per gallon.
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The event was otherwise very well organised for the 38 cars, and one bike, that were on the track and had a sea of volunteers including professional flag men and ladies who called you up to start on a dime with strict precision and waved you off with a flurry of green, white and checkered flags! Very cool. Full spotters with radio headsets. They black flagged team Lexus as the car did several laps drafting the SUV at about 10 feet. I wish they had seen the jerk in the white Insight that tried to block me from passing up the hill out of turn 2. I was already even with his driver's window when he pushed me to within 6 inches of the curb. When the horn didn't work I should have knocked on the glass to ask him to calm his road rage. The Insights were the cars to stay away from as they would sometimes use heavy braking into turn 1 to regen their batteries. It was a little crowded at times but I generally had a great run. Turn 1 is no joke as you dive down 50? feet through the tight right angle. I was just shy of dragging a knee. It was one of the turns that had a speed limit of 40 and was actually pretty extreme if you mis calculated your entry speed as the team of Michigan college students did when they spun it at 50! Luckily there was no roll over and they were able to continue their run after getting it pointed the right way again. It was a beautiful day Friday. Saturday, not so much. Too bad my blue tooth audio drained my battery or I would have had more photos to share.
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Saturday dawned overcast and cool but the rain held off for my hour commute back the the Glen for the 6:15AM mandatory observed fill up. So I was able to stay dry while we hung around the paddock for the drivers meeting before heading out for the road rally. A front moved in just as we were starting. The temps dropped into the low 40's F and a heavy mist started blowing sideways out of the West. Visibility was 100 feet at best. Not the nicest day for a 3 hour motorcycle ride. Or car ride as one guy found out when he rolled his driver's window down at a check point and it jumped off the track. By the time I got to the half way point at the top of the lake, It had changed to pouring rain. Motorcycle(s) were allowed to run a simplified route according to a map rather than using the TSD rally turn by turn instructions so I wasn't under the gun to hit any exact times. My hands were pretty cold by the 3/4 point so I went in to McDonalds to grab a burger and hot drink. This worked out well as I was the 3rd vehicle in at the end for our refill. It was really fun to hang around to watch all the other cars check in. The driver of the ultra cool factoryfive kit car liked my over boots. His pants and shoes were soaked to the knee as the car picked up an inch of water on the floor through it's leaky doors. The professional photographer shot 100's (thousand?) of photos so I hope most of this gets posted somewhere.
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I made the mistake of mentioning when I checked in at the track that most of the competitors were here to contest their fuel economy and would probably rather not have to run a puzzling TSD rally. The team of SCCA racing enthusiasts laboriously grading and pointing the check in sheets jumped all over me and told me to go find another event. Sorry! I won't mention it again. Unfortunately, there are very few other fuel economy events anywhere and it seems that SCCA sanctioning is the only way to get this done. Maybe I will join the SCCA to try to enlighten them about hypermiling as a new form of competition. It really is a cool sport and harkens back to the days of endurance racing in the 60's where the only rules were to pass a safety inspection and you might have big block V8's running against turbo 4's or high revving V12's. Hypermiling is the new "run what you brung" competition.

[MetroMPG]

Smokey - congratulations!

I turned up about an hour before the awards ceremony and was looking at the vehicles in the garage - your truck wasn't inside was it?

The pea soup fog yesterday was crazy. I can now say I've been to Watkins Glen International track, but I certainly have not seen it. Very disorienting, socked in like that.

Gasoline Fumes - wish I'd seen Alfred State's fancy red Insight too. It wasn't in the garage (at least when I was there).

Yesterday's weather left a lot to be desired, but the growler of nut brown ale from the crooked rooster brew pub will console me.

EDIT: - PS the customs/immigration people didn't care much about the transmission I brought back - the beer was of more interest to them.

I left too late - wasn't a terribly fun drive home on somewhat unfamiliar roads in the dark & rain, watching out for critters large & small (saw plenty of road kill).

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by sendler

Probably posted the best actual fuel economy of all the vehicles competing but won't get credit for it as the vehicles without built in computers were required to calculate the fuel usage by the total weight lost using scales. This was totally inaccurate. I did my own tank fill in town before and after to get the real numbers.

Bummer. Fill-up / measurements are the constant issue with these competitions.

Congrats on your performance though - I didn't realize I was talking to "sendler" - just before the awards ceremony, that was me and Wonderboy (Will) chatting with you about your bike.

I was of course wearing my "team EcoModder" t-shirt for proper identification to other forum members, but it was way too cold & damp yesterday, so it was covered up by 3 other layers!