Reader's Digest article on Fuel Efficient Drivers

[larrydag]

Found this on Digg. Interesting story about one driver and his pursuit of the World's Most Fuel-Efficient Driver. I bet we have some guys on Ecomodder who could take him on for the challenge.

http://www.rd.com/special-reports/th...icle55921.html

He drives an Accord too. Right on!

[SVOboy]

Sounds like he could lose some weight if he really wanted to get good mileage.

[dremd]

Sounds like he shouldn't be driving an accord 2 hours each day.

Sounds like my driving when someone "cool" is in the car, I squeeze every last bit out of it, always try and get my SGII "trip" over 120. (not really accurate)

Of course when some people are in my car I drive 2~3 over and hear crap about people who drive so slow . . . . . .

[Daox]

I can assure you, Wayne is quite the driver. In fact, I was just out driving with him this last weekend at the Milwaukee Hybrid Group meet doing some driver training. He drove up from Chicago in his 03 Ford Ranger and averaged 65 mpg on the trip. His lifetime average with the Ranger is 38.5, and his lifetime average with the Accord is 48.4. Certainly nothing to sneeze at.

[Arminius]

Originally Posted by Daox

I can assure you, Wayne is quite the driver. In fact, I was just out driving with him this last weekend at the Milwaukee Hybrid Group meet doing some driver training. He drove up from Chicago in his 03 Ford Ranger and averaged 65 mpg on the trip. His lifetime average with the Ranger is 38.5, and his lifetime average with the Accord is 48.4. Certainly nothing to sneeze at.

He's the one that got me motivated to improve my mileage.

[FX2.3]

Originally Posted by Daox

...He drove up from Chicago in his 03 Ford Ranger and averaged 65 mpg on the trip...

how?!?!

[LostCause]

My guess is excellent maintenance, conserving momentum, and driving extremely slow (30-40mph if it's a manual, 45mph if not).

Someone needs to scour his mind for techniques. I bet he's holding back on a few.

- LostCause

[Arminius]

He's a drafting nut. His skill (among others) is to know when to do it and when not to. The way to get 65 mpg in a truck is to draft. That's the only way to do it between Chicago and Milwaukee.

Today I got 65 mpg in my little car. The only way I can to that is to drive down a looooooog hill, or to draft. I drafted, but it's not something I would normally do.

[Daox]

I didn't ask him how he did it. My guess is that he did drive fairly slow.

[MetroMPG]

Yes, it can be slow. I imagine the 65 mpg in the Ranger was predominantly low speed pulse and glide (ie. 2nd gear - it's a manual), with an average speed somewhere in the 20-25 mph area. I don't think he could have pulled off that mileage in a straight draft.

I've driven with Wayne as well. In all situations, he's highly aware of the driving environment unfolding in front of him and adjusts his technique accordingly.

Very little fuel is ever converted to brake dust. That's "driving without brakes, or DWB".

In sub/urban driving or stop & crawl, the engine is either accelerating the vehicle, or it's off, period.

He's more comfortable with the occasional drafting situation than I am.

And he's apparently immune to the sound of honking horns. Granted, in the couple of situations where people beeped, they had nowhere else to go and were only fixated on his "slow car" (relative to traffic in the adjacent lanes). If they had looked ahead, they'd have seen he was coasting towards either a stop ahead or a slowdown in traffic in his lane.

The only time I felt uneasy was in a free flow of highway traffic, where he's comfortable at lower speeds (right lane, of course) than I am. "Driving with load / target driving" somewhere north of where the top gear or torque converter engages.