Latest T-100 Roadtrip results

[aerohead]

As I mentioned in my grille-block overheat thread, I spent the Thanksgiving holiday in New Mexico. I traveled with my significant other, and out of respect to her, did not adhere to my normal obsessive data gathering. The following is a re-construction of the trip as best I can, and is not offered as "science", but rather what one might expect to encounter in the "real" world during casual vacation and tourist driving.

RAW DATA:
*No Boattail
*Full of camping gear and luggage
*Aprox.3,900-lbs rolling weight(1,773kg)
*Mostly 2-lane highway with only brief mileage on interstate highway.
*1,475-miles gross mileage(2,379 km)
*51.170-gallons fuel(193.78-liters)
*Speed:0-75-mph (0-121 km/h)
*Elevation:
620-ft(189m)Denton,TX
6,810-ft(2,079m) @Ruidoso,New Mexico
4,197-ft(1,282m)Alamogordo,NM
5,719-ft(1,746m)San Augustine Pass,NM[ twice ]
4,454-ft(1,360m)Las Cruces,NM
8,650-ft(2,641m)Cloudcroft,NM.
*94 complete stops
*11-engine re-starts(with 5 cold-starts)
*73-miles of urban driving(118 km)
36-miles rain-soaked highway(58 km)
*Temperatures:30-70F(-6C-21C)
*Winds: up to 40-mph (64km/h)

Remarks:
As you can see, many variables, impossible to account for. If I throw out the "urban" miles, estimating about 20-mpg for that distance, and using best-fit iterations, I end up with an estimated 29.55-mpg for the dry highway portion, 28.55mpg for the wet mileage (using EPA estimate for wet driving). Given all the stops, re-starts, cold-starts, mountain grades, wind , and lower ambient temperatures, I'm pleased enough with the trucks performance. I won't attempt to conject or speculate the difference the boattail might have made. We essentially completely unloaded and loaded the truck each travel day and I just wasn't up to the annoyance of dealing with the tail

By the way, the inlet on the T-100 is an 8.25-inch (206.5mm) circle and serves the 150-Bhp engine okay until that very steep set of switch-backs and hairpin curves just below the summit at Cloudcroft. I think the electric back-up fan would be a good idea for anyone doing mountain ascents behind slow-moving traffic.

Let me know if I left anything out. Even my eyes get crossed after awhile!