Southern New England - New York MPG Meetup

[brucepick]

The event is planned for Sunday, October 26 in the Berkshire Mountains in MA. This post was updated Oct 7, 2014, so anyone seeing this for the first time gets the whole story right here. There are some follow up posts in this thread as we discussed different ways to plan the meetup, but our settled plan is here in this first post.

A fuel economy challenge and meetup.

Meet: Sun Oct 26, 12 noon, at Pontoosuc Park on Hancock Road, Pittsfield, MA.
The weather will be a bit cool, but should not be wintry.
Here's the plan:

We've settled on driving this loop from the park, up Mount Graylock, and back to the park. It's just over 44 miles:
Mount Geylock MPG rally course - Pittsfield, MA
Thanks to Sheepdog44 for the route details!
It's a beautiful scenic route, and we should see some good fall foliage, while driving scenic country roads. There are some noteworthy grades, both up and down, but most of the route is either a gentle slope or level. The route link above has a nice elevation display and notes on grades.

The route passes a gas station just a mile or so after leaving the park, going North on Rte 7. We'll fill up there, and top up again at the end of the run (heading South at that time), to get our mpg for the run.

I envision lunch before the Mt Graylock run. Fellowship, and comparing mods, rides, and notes can be before and/or after the drive. It's a one-day event; back home the same day unless someone drives in from very far away.

We'll handicap the scoring, using EPA estimated combined city/highway mpg. Basically, like what EcoModder does, in calculating your improvement over the EPA estimates: Actual mpg / EPA Estimate mpg = your score.

Of course, we will have the raw mpg scores too, there's no way to ignore those numbers!

We have about a half dozen people already "in"; there's definitely room for more.

[sheepdog 44]

I'm fine with Springfield or Albany, Worcester is acceptable. I live in the scenic Berkshire mountains in MA too. At least 90% of New Yorkers would agree, They love our trees in October.

Poughkeepsie i don't like. The Taconic Parkway is an MPG killer and just horrible. The one thing about driving to a destination from different places is that all the routes are different. I live at high elevation, so everyplace is all downhill for me.

[Formula413]

I'm in the Springfield MA area and I would be interested. I'm going to be in the middle of moving at that time so I will be pretty busy but I'll do my best to free up some time to attend. If there is going to be an MPG rally it would make more sense for everyone to use the same route, otherwise the numbers aren't relevant for comparison purposes.

[NeilBlanchard]

I am interested and could possibly go to this. I hope to have mt wheel skirts and strakes rebuilt by then, and if I don't, then it will be too cold anyway.

[FordFiestaS]

I could do Albany or Springfield.

[brucepick]

Wow - already four people interested, plus myself.


Looks like we're centering on Albany or Springfield, with some mention of Worcester MA. However as any additional people chime in, we'll see where the overall preference leads us.

As for the downhill run thing affecting an mpg competition -
Sheepdog, we'll just have to penalize you 10 mpg!
Kidding of course.
Seriously Sheepdog44, what altitude are you at?
What lower start point could you get to? Start point is your choice.

Springfield elevation: 70'
Albany airport elevation: 285'
I looked these up.

Another plan might be to have the return trip also count in the mpg competition. That would balance off any climbs and descents. The down side would be that we wouldn't have those results till after our meetup.

Glad to see this many people interested, right off the bat.
Thanks, guys!

Who else is interested?

[changzuki]

Interested yes but unable to commit at this point in time. Will keep an eye on this though........
~CrazyJerry

[smokey442]

Worcester is a good choice. Sunday I think would be a better choice to appeal to larger #s of participation. I've made contact with the director of Thomson Speedway in CT. about hosting an event next year at that facility.

[brucepick]

A manual type poll re. a few choices to be made:

smokey442, good to see you here.

Smokey suggested Sunday (Oct 26) might be better than Saturday, and also suggested Worcester.
I'm good either way. I want to see how to get the largest number of people attending our little event.

Here's a low-tech poll

We need to decide a few things.
Everyone interested in joining us, I hope you'll please answer these questions.
You can post here, or send me a pm if you prefer.

1) The Date
I prefer Sat Oct 25
I prefer Sun Oct 26
I'm good with either

2) The City
Let me know Yes/No, whether each of these would work for you.
You can say "Yes" to any or all of these.
Springfield, MA
Worcester, MA
Albany, NY
That way we can settle on the city that works for the most people here.

3) Drive in mpg competition - how much do you guys like this idea?
(Please see first post in this thread for some details)
We could have a 50-mile minimum distance, 75 seems like a lot
We've had thoughtful comments on the idea, need to decide whether to include it in our meetup.

Let me know Yes/No, for these three scenarios (you can say "yes" to all):
I would be in for a drive-in mpg competition
I would be in for an mpg competition loop in/near the meetup area
I would be at the meetup even if there's no mpg competition

Notes re. the drive-in competition idea -

Downside: Different routes for everyone
Upside: You pick your start point and route, so you can use small roads or whatever you prefer. No fair loading your car onto a flatbed!
Upside: After driving an hour or whatever to get to our meetup - with a matching drive to get back home afterwards - you won't be driving another 50-100 miles in the meetup locale for an MPG competition.

[FordFiestaS]

1) Sunday
2) No Springfield, No Worcester, Yes Albany (I changed my mind on Springfiel)
3) No on the MPG idea (to small a distance)