Rain, rain, go away!
 

Friday evening I drove 180 miles and Saturday evening I drove 180 miles back. I decided I wanted to get a really good FE tank in, so I filled up fresh and whipped out my SG-I (which hadn't seen use since last fall). Unfortunately it was raining cats and dogs on Friday!

Trying to keep speed in the range 52mph-62mph in general, DWL and neutral coasting when appropriate, I found that on the way down I needed to keep LOD around 49, while on the way back (no rain!) I could keep LOD around 37! SG-I reported a difference of 10mpg (45mpg versus 55mpg, though it is about 10-15% optimistic and an early revision so not adjustable).

So I found rain to be a big hinderance to my FE! How do you guys deal with it?

Rain increases rolling resistance and aerodynamic drag. There's nothing you can do besides weight reduction, aeromods, and driving slower.

That, and make sure your engine bay stays dry enough to warm up quickly, and drive on the lowest-RR spots on the road. So, avoid standing water, and try to drive on the tire tracks of the guy in front of you.

Just put a car cover on your car when you drive.

At least wet roads give you a more widely accepted excuse to go slower. One good thing with a stick shift is you can usually slow down some in high gear and still move along just fine, where an automatic will kick you out below a certain speed.

No wonder my fuel logs look so dismal. It's raining almost daily here in Oregon. Not to mention the crosswinds on the highway I drive daily...

Or... stay home! :p :D

AeroModder -

Yup, you're getting hammered. Had a rainy day yesterday on the freeways. There is almost no way to win. As a corollary, some of the best MPG runs I got last year came during the LA forest fires, :eek: !

CarloSW2

I hear you man I'm Portland and yeah it can rain for weeks nonstop.

I've had only one tank with completely dry weather, and that one averaged 26.4 MPG. With this rain I'm struggling to hit 23.

I hear ya too, Michigan is the same way (at least the northern half of the mitt where I'm at). Probably because of all the water just like Oregon. Sometimes we get dry spells, but it's almost always overcast and when it rains it just keeps going for days or sometimes weeks. The wind is almost always cold and gusting from some direction. Every single time I go out on the highway I get pummeled by the wind. A truly warm sunny calm day is a rare occurence and is something we celebrate. I need a heavy shirt 95% of the year. But the plus side is adding clothes is easier than taking away. Then there are all the steep hills when traveling east or west from where the glaciers cut the land, and officially the 2nd worst roads in the USA. I think I do pretty good with mpg, but I always wonder what kind of mpg I could get out of the Celeb if I was in Texas or something.