SMCC Montreal Economy Run - June 9th, 2012

[nerdboy]

Originally Posted by CigaR007

So, how was it ? Must have been a gorgeous day for a rally.

It was indeed a perfect day for Economy Running. We've been really lucky with the weather all three years. Here are the results (if any corrections are required, let me know and I'll update them):



The visitors are en route to NY, VT and ON after a fun evening last night of checking out the F1 weekend craziness on Ste-Catherine Street, including a small impromptu student parade.

Lots of great discussion to come from these results... GO!

[JethroBodine]

Made it home!

Many thanks Jeff.

Impressions later.

[nerdboy]

I've added some photos to a SMCC Rally Picasa album: click here

[nerdboy]

Transports Quebec decided to do a little roadwork and create a detour that wasn't in the instructions, so I parked at the end of the detour and made sure that everyone found their way back on route, and gave them an extra 4 minutes to compensate. Here we have a nice mix of vehicles: the first Prius-C that I've seen in the flesh, a Smart running on biodiesel, and my Levin.



Same spot, here's the FrankenJetta and more Smarts. I have to add that the FrankenJetta received a LOT of attention throughout the weekend. There are surely more videos and photos of it than of any supercar here during the F1 weekend. Driving back to my place in a convoy after the event, we totally affected traffic by rubberneckers checking out the UFO and especially the Jetta. Everyone had their smartphone out taking pics 'n vids.



And here's echo-francis' duck-billed Echosaurus blocking the evil gas guzzling SUV's path. I love the fact that NDP election campaign posters were used to make the mods. Green Party ones might have been even more eco-friendly, but they're smaller and scarcer.



And the winner is!

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by morphector

L'an prochain surement par contre

Too bad - you missed a good one! Yes, try for next year - especially if Jeff can keep delivering the great weather!

It was really well attended with a large, competitive Smart car contingent (gas + diesel models) from Club Smart Quebec.

Scoring better than 3 L / 100 km (78 mpg US) is absolutely achieveable on this course (with good weather, a fairly clean run & with the right vehicle).

The time/speed/distance element and the route choice really makes this a "driving enthusiast's" economy rally. Interesting combination! To keep from getting penalized, you have to push the car. It's a much more aggressive pace than the others I've gone to (Green Grand Prix & A.M.E.C.), and long sections are super twisty. I've never driven the car that hard before this weekend, and probably won't again until next time.

As mentioned, I drove and Will navigated in the U.F.O. (aka: Nerd Ferrari) with the hybrid system disabled. I'm happy to report that Will is equally as bad at navigating as I was when I sat in the right seat for him 2 years ago! We incurred the same number of penalties this year as we did last time: 4 minutes total = 8% hit for corrected fuel consumption.

Spirited driving with the hybrid system disabled: oof, what a dog! (Many, many times I laughed at the dashboard "upshift" light. "Dashboard upshift light, I mock you! I ignore your ridiculous pleas for lower RPM.") On the hilly & twisty route, the un-assisted car could barely get out of its own way. On several stages, we really needed to pass another vehicle or two to keep from being late to our next check point, but it just wasn't an option! That was a bit frustrating.

A fun event ... and EcoModders represented nicely! That's 3 years of the event, 3 years of EcoModders in the top spot, if I'm not mistaken.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by nerdboy

I have to add that the FrankenJetta received a LOT of attention throughout the weekend. There are surely more videos and photos of it than of any supercar here during the F1 weekend.

HA - so true!

I wish I'd had my camera, just so I could have taken pictures of all the people taking pictures of the FrankenJetta!

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

I've never driven the car that hard before this weekend, and probably won't again until next time.

Driving styles, for comparison: 76 mpg US (3.1 L/100 km) in spirited rally driving in the event; 98 mpg US (2.4 L/100 km) on the return from Montreal this afternoon, driving the speed limit on the scenic, flat route (ideal for lean burn!) on a perfect weather day (the usual head wind was AWOL).

[nerdboy]

I should probably also note that the route ended up being almost 4km longer than last year due to the two detours combined (the known detour was ~300m, the "oh crap, this wasn't here two weeks ago" detour added about 3.6km). So everyone's fuel economy is technically 2% better than what the results indicate.

Scoring better than 3 L / 100 km (78 mpg US) is absolutely achieveable on this course (with good weather, a fairly clean run & with the right vehicle).

I am finally convinced of that now, and hope we break that barrier next year with creative entries.

On an interesting note, although we've improved raw and penalized fuel economy each subsequent year, the L/100km/tonne has actually decreased with each subsequent year. We need a well-driven diesel VW or Merc or something to correct that next year! Smarts, Insights and Geos are just too light.

[CigaR007]

Wow ! Congrats to the participants. I will be back in 2013. Hopefully the competition will continue to grow.

Kudos to you guys !

[blownb310]

Great write ups and pictures, thanks guys! Kudo's to Jeff and the SMCC for another great event up north. I couldn't have been more pleased with second overall in my stock Metro. I was really fortunate again this year to have David Wood as my navigator. His quick math with mileages got me out of quite a few jams. When we started the rally we immediately realized the route instructions were in kilometers and my odometer was in miles! Some quick math was required and John didn't miss a beat. More quick math was needed later on because I kept forgetting to reset the odometer at the check points. Luckily, nothing rattled John!

The nice thing about this event is that it uses the same route each time so you can compare your results from year to year.

My raw mpg results to date:

2010 - 2.0L '93 Sentra SE-R: 57.74 mpg
2011 - 1.4L '77 Datsun B210: 60.40 mpg
2012 - 1.0 L '97 Geo Metro: 64.43 mpg.

Note: I used the corrected course length of 202 km to calculate my raw mpg [for the 2012 event].

More good news, participation for this event was up again this year. The number of vehicles competing:

2010 - 6 cars
2011 - 10 cars
2012 - 16 cars

My trip home to Albany, NY yielded 55.2 mpg at between 55-60 mph on the Adirondack Northway. This was my first Metro experience and I loved it. I should have bought one years ago!

[HyperMileQC]

The rally was really a good experience for both of us. This was our first rally and we were surprised of the results! 4.63 L/100Km is absolutely not good for us. We are normally getting 3.5 L/100Km with this "ducknosed" echo

Our goal was to beat the Smarts, we beated 5 of 8 smarts counting 1 Diesel. So that is pretty cool tho.

Francis never had to push the gas pedal so hard, some times, we were in 2nd gear and 5000 RPM! Only for climbing those hills.

Si ont avait à refaire le rally, je crois que nous nous concentrerons uniquement sur la consommation brute, ainsi nous obtiendrons de meilleurs résultats dans 3 catégories sur 4. Et comme je suis vraiment a chier en math, nous aurons pas de problèmes avec les calculs et les "Francis esti, roule plus vite on est 3 minutes en retard!" et lui de répondre "Chu déja dans l'fond!"

All our mods need to be fixed now, because of this rally