Vancouver B.C. meet-up? Jan 2013?

[mechman600]

Oops. That's what I meant.

[ECOHondaOdyssey]

Hi Metro mpg,
It would be awesome to meet up and do some eco-driving. I am trying to turn myself into a eco-tiger here with this i-VTEC cylinder deactivated beast.
Right now I am getting 20mpg (US gallons) city and 28.2 on the highway with my new scanguage.
For the previous 6 months & 5800miles, prior to the scangauge, it was 17mpg mostly city driving. I am eager to learn some 'tried and true' ways to tame this beast.
regards,
EcoHondaOdyssey

[MetroMPG]

20 city/28 hwy is pretty good. Sounds to me like you're sorting it out pretty well - already above EPA for both figures. Send me a private message if you'd like to set up a day/time to go for a drive. I'd be interested in seeing how the cyl-deactivation works in your van.

I see you put "Kammback" on your list of potential mods. I bet you've noticed the rear of the latest version of the van has a short OEM aero spoiler... baby Kammback:

[MetroMPG]

Met with War_Wagon today. He took me to see his secret eco-car stash! Full of 1st gen. Insights, and Metros, and Tercels, and Civics VX's, and 1st gen. Priuses, and minivans (and family sedans) with holy grail 5-speed manual transmissions.

Someone... OK, Frank Lee... once told me that the amount of junk (OK, vehicles in my case) a person collects will always expand to fill the available space. This he prophesied about my workshop. And lo, the prophesy came to pass: I filled the available space with Suzuki-clones.

War_Wagon has a most difficult conundrum: his storage space appears to be kind of unlimited! He sometimes makes half-joking gestures of wearing blinders when we go past vehicles that catch his eye, but which he doesn't yet own.

The vexing part of the story is that these eco-cars represent the bottom of the automotive food chain. Because despite there being many ecomodder types who would otherwise snap up a rust-free example of their favourite 15 or 20 year-old fuel-sipper, geography is cruel: it doesn't really make financial sense to come half-way across the continent for a $1000 car. (Or ship one that far.)

What to do, what to do...

[War_Wagon]

I'd love to find homes for most of these little cars, if only because then I could keep looking for new ones ha ha ha. It's hard for me to see a seviceable eco-car go to the scrap yard, it just seems like such a waste when in the right hands it could advance interest in what we all like to do, give someone an economical way to get around, and keep someone from having to have monthly car payments on a new car (I did that once in the early '90s and it still makes me cry lol). But around here there just isn't any interest in these cars it seems. If there was, I wouldn't have to rescue them. People around here don't want anything old or anything that is a project for the most part it seems, even if it's something interesting.

[mechman600]

Originally Posted by War_Wagon

I'd love to find homes for most of these little cars, if only because then I could keep looking for new ones ha ha ha. It's hard for me to see a seviceable eco-car go to the scrap yard, it just seems like such a waste when in the right hands it could advance interest in what we all like to do, give someone an economical way to get around, and keep someone from having to have monthly car payments on a new car (I did that once in the early '90s and it still makes me cry lol). But around here there just isn't any interest in these cars it seems. If there was, I wouldn't have to rescue them. People around here don't want anything old or anything that is a project for the most part it seems, even if it's something interesting.

Man. If I ever [for some reason or another] get a longer commute than I have now and the Electric Booger won't do, I will be sure to buy a car off of you.

[War_Wagon]

Well I appreciate that. But this isn't about selling cars to me. Don't get me wrong, I have used that to fund buying new cars in the past, but when it comes to eco cars trust me, no one around here is breaking out their wallet to buy one. I had a mint 92 Tercel, 5 speed, 165k KMs (102k miles), zero rust with original paint and a mint black interior. Took 6 weeks to sell it for a whopping $1200. I didn't care about what it sold for, it was more the fact that it took a month and a half to sell it - if a strong little car that is capable of 35 mpg+ is that unwanted around here, then I should probably stop saving them from the scrap heap.

[mechman600]

Here's a good one. When Darin (MetroMPG) visited the other day, we were cruising in the Electric Booger and he noticed a penny jammed into my cigarette lighter. "Yeah....my 3 year old daughter always played in my car when I was working on it."

Hmmm........

Thinking about it, after converting the car to electric, the stereo and digital clock stopped working, and whenever I put a new 10A fuse in, it instantly blew.

Fast forward to today when finally took a pair of needle nose pliers and pulled the penny out. New fuse: good. Digital clock: good. Stereo: good.

Thanks Darin for your expert diagnostic help!

[MetroMPG]

You are welcome, sir! (I'm always on the lookout for potential electrical shorts when riding around in other people's DIY EV's )

---

I probably won't be going to this week's VEVA meeting (going to visit relatives on Van Island Wed., not sure what time I'll be back). So not sure about the prospects for a "group" meet there.

Though I will be going out for a spin with EcoHondaOdyssey this week to see if we can find ways to squeeze out a few more km with driving techniques.

[mechman600]

When are you departing from this fine province of ours, Darin?