New personal best (again) 40MPG!

[endurance]

Winter's doing me in. I put the snow tires on at the end of the last tank and the SGII is hovering around 35.7mpg. I shouldn't be disappointed given that last year at this time I was getting 27-28mpg with snow tires, winter gas, and no driving technique, but of course I am anyway. I started playing with more engine off stuff at stop lights and such, but today was the first time I actually did some of my gravity drop using EOC.

Just EOC'ing about 3 miles bumped my MPG from a previous best commute of 55.0 to 57.8mpg with more stop and go traffic than usual. I now hold out hope of 60mpg for my commute in if I can get traffic free and utilize another .7-1.2 miles of EOC potential areas I noted on my way in today. Of course, I probably have about 9.5-10 miles of descending I could EOC, but for now, I'm sticking to bits with very little or no traffic for safety. I'm learning that living without power brakes isn't as bad as I thought it would be while EOC'ing, but I'll probably still try to get the vacuum pump installed over the winter.

Priority returns to finally installing that lower radiator hose heater that's been sitting in my garage for over a month now. I just hate the mess the project will involve, but the sooner I do it, the sooner it'll be done and I can start enjoying a warmer car in the morning and help my winter MPG. Besides, I'm sure the new insulated front door, storm door, Low-e window, and insulated blinds that I've been working on will give me a faster ROI than the heater. ...still have to get that garage wall insulated, too, oh, and that new door downstairs... (I'll never run out of excuses to avoid being covered in ethelene glycol)

[SentraSE-R]

Good going. Have you installed an engine block heater and a full grill block?

[endurance]

Not full, but large, yes (we still get 60-70F days even in the dead of winter and today I was running at 207F water temp, so I still need some airflow).

Last paragraph of my last post spoke to the delay on the heater.

Light traffic allowed me a max EOC trip to the Home Depot today. 134mpg to the store (8.5mi, .06gal). Round trip was 42.3mpg. Not bad for a 24mpg sports car with 200 hp.

Fun stuff.

[SentraSE-R]

Excellent.

[endurance]

Just had the best commute ever! Extremely windy morning, so much so that a section of the roof on my garage blew up (it's an HDPE mat that I easily flipped back over and put some bricks on, but it's never happened to me before). On the 470 section of my commute I was tucked in behind a peoplemover and was able to hold average mpg despite the strong headwind. Once I turned east I immediately saw just how strong the winds were, as I coasted a full half mile beyond where I usually have to restart.

Overall, I probably coasted close to half my commute with the engine off; way above and beyond the 1/3 I usually can get away with. When I got to work the SGII showed 0.39 gallons used for an mpg of 65.6, however, it showed my commute as 25.8mi, instead of the actual 26.3 because I don't have a kill switch and the SGII isn't accurately recording the mileage when I turn the motor off. With the full mileage calculated it averages to 67.4mpg! Simply amazing.

When I pulled into my parking spot at work I realized I'd been so focused on driving that I never even turned on the car stereo.

[SentraSE-R]

Have to love those long downhills. I remember some memorable ones - 75 mpg for 40 miles from Truckee, CA to Reno, NV. Another was 71.9 mpg for 48 miles from Bryce Canyon National Park to Escalante, UT. It sounds like you do one on a daily basis.

[endurance]

It's not quite that epic. It starts out great for the first 8 miles, then I have to climb, but it's a mild climb that I can still eek out 26mpg at 65mph. After that I get into more traffic and fewer long opportunities, but still have some 1/4 mile to 1.3 mile stretches I can coast if the traffic is right. Friday was epic, with perhaps a 40mph tail wind on the way to work and it died down by the time I went home, so I managed 30.9mpg going home for a daily average of 41.6mpg. Usually my down mpg is around 55, my up is around 30mpg and I average 38mpg round trip.

This weekend was a real eye opener. My first really long drive since I started hypermiling with several very long descents. Brought the tank to a new record 40.6mpg and managed 47 outbound and 44mpg returning. Now I'm going to try to see if I can get my first 500 mile tank. At 13.2 gallons, the gods are going to have to shine down on me to make it, but I'm off to a great start and the weather looks like it should cooperate at least through Thursday (temps in the 50s and maybe even 60F!). A storm is coming in Friday, so I'll have to fuel up before that (I never drive on less than a quarter tank if a storm is coming). Then again, maybe I'll take the long way home to ensure I get in the miles.

[Weather Spotter]

Setting goals to work towards helps keep you motivated to improve your mpg. I know I hit a goal of one tank of 50 mpg and sense I have been less motivated to try hard.

Can you EOC down the hills?

Keep up the good work!

[endurance]

I've started doing a lot of EOC these last two tanks and as a result have not only beaten winter at its mileage theiving ways, but also set new tank and trip records. It's getting tricky right now with the shorter days. I need the lights or at least parking lights on more, which means I need to keep an eye on my battery to avoid sending it to an early grave. At the moment I'm still comfortable using parking lights only if I leave late enough, but the later I leave, the more traffic I catch, so there's a catch 22. If I left earlier to avoid traffic, I'd need full lights on and I'm just not comfortable going 15+/- minutes with the lights on EOC. While I'm sure it would bump start, that's digging deep into the battery's reserves, which stands to significantly shorten its life.

I have a friend in Kansas I haven't seen in a while and I just might try to make it out there one of these weekends just to see how good a tank of pure highway will treat me. These last two tanks have more highway than usual and I've been shocked at just how good the MPG looks while cruising. Alternatively, I wonder if I'd get better MPG doing massive glides in the mountains. There's nothing flat for 200 miles in any direction here, so one way or the other, you're working it.

I learned a bit about what relatively minor elevation changes in Colorado can do to mpg. Between Vail and Glenwood it looks almost flat, but going west I was holding 46-49mpg, then coming back east was 35-39mpg in the same stretch. That's 1,400' in 61 miles and while there's no way to EOC there, just that sub 1% grade makes a huge difference. I made up for it later in the trip where the real elevation change is (Vail Pass climbs 3000' in about 12 miles and I can climb at 21.5mpg, then descend EOC, the Eisenhower Tunnel approach climbs about 2500' in about 7 miles, then descends about 3500' over then next 30 miles with relatively short stretches of power needed).

[Weather Spotter]

I bet if you do some aero mods you will start seeing your coasts get a lot longer! I did with mine and it helps me on those small down grades, I can now pulse and glide them better. On the up hill side I like small grades better as my aero mods move me back into the best MPG band even when going up hills