Watkins Glen, NY, "Green Grand Prix" Sat May 2, 2009; fuel economy competition & show

[blownb310]

Originally Posted by Matt Herring

That's great work guys...way to go! Keep the updates coming...I'd like to see as many pics as you can post and would like to hear about interactions with other drivers and any interesting mods you are seeing there. Congrats!

Ditto to what Matt said. Love to hear more about it! Thanks for the follow up with pics!!!

I'll bet not a drop of rain all day either right?

[MetroMPG]

Oh, it rained pretty good yesterday afternoon. And overnight.

But today's weather was PERFECT for the fuel economy run. The organizer missed seeing your car - he specifically mentioned it. Sounds like he was a sports car racer back in the day.

Pics... Ben & Will had fancy cameras (I forgot my amazing 2 MP unit at home) so they'll probably be posting some.

For me the most interesting vehicle was a solar car built by a high school - 48v pack, Alltrax controller. They even participated in the fuel economy run, but had to drop out (burned out a wheel bearing). They could have done the whole 77 mile loop at 45 mph (on the flats - slower up, faster downhill) on sunshine and a 4.8 kW battery pack. (Compare to the ForkenSwift with a 10 kW pack, similar performance, no solar panels, and a 20 mile range).

For other people, the most interesting car was probably the home made, wood bodied, streamlined diesel powered trike which is an automotive X-Prize entry. They managed 89.5 mpg on the circuit today.

[Wonderboy]

My new window cling


We each made something with Ben's high quality coroplast; Ben made the top part of a possible future ducktail thingy, and also made a lower grill block (didn't get a pic).


Darin made a tiny little upper grill block. (If you can't see it, the Pontiac emblem is pointing to it.)


I blocked off nearly my whole lower grill. No overheating whatsoever.


In line to get to the starting line - they released cars every 60 seconds. We got some funny looks when we pushed our cars up to the starting line.


The X-prize diesel trike. Very insightful driver/creator. Oh and there's Ben too.


There's the event photographer lady who probably has some photos of me. Few were taken because I'm always masked and in costume similar to Daft Punk and MF Doom.


If the EPA rating for the '91 CRX weren't so outlandishly low, I would be in this photo too (McTimson probably wouldn't be though if Ben's CRX moved up a bracket.) I'm not complaining though - it was a blast. The biggest disappointment was probably Darin, who, in defiance of logic, couldn't manage to produce .3 more MPG from his purse. Maybe we wouldn't all have to be so insatiable if we didn't have to EXPECT Darin to fail constantly.


...Seriously though, everyone did an awesome job and aside from the gas filling mishaps it was a fantastic event. More ecomodders are required for this event in the future.

[Matt Herring]

The Sunday paper vs. Ecomodder...Ecomodder wins hands down...this is great!

[McTimson]

It was definitely a great event, we had a lot of fun! There was definitely a lot of interest in the ecomodded cars, many people thought we had electric motors in the cars with the high MPG figures.

Technically, my car should have been competing with Darin's in the 'other' category, since the Tercel is no longer produced, but I didn't mention that

The fuel expansion theory sounds right - my car was actually pretty close to what I got on my MPGuino (53.17 MPG from the pump, compared to 49.9MPG from the MPGuino), and I think that's because I had filled up after already driving about 60 miles to get there in the morning. So, both times I filled up, the car was already warm. The error in mine is probably just because the fill was only about 1.5 gallons, so any small difference there results in a larger MPG difference.

I personally enjoyed the fact that the highest Prius MPG was only about 62 or so. Several Prius owners were shocked that our cars could get such great numbers without being hybrids.

Anyway, it was a great event, and I'm looking forward to next year's. The solar car that Darin mentioned is from Newburgh, NY, and has been a work in progress for a few years. I know somebody who raced it when she was a senior there in 2005, so they've had it for a while.


Unfortunately for me, on the way home, my rear passenger side wheel bearing blew out. It started squealing a few miles before Ithaca, and I hoped that I would be able to make it back home so I could fix it, but it completely blew out right outside of Ithaca. So, with the help of my brother who drove up to help, we fixed the wheel bearing on the side of the road. I wouldn't recommend it to anybody, the bearing had melted onto the axle, we had to use a torch, gear puller, and hacksaw just to get the thing off. It worked out in the end though, we got home at around midnight, after a very long day.

[SVOboy]

Wow, way to fix that on the road. I probably wouldn't have been so daring.

I just returned home so in a bit I will post my recollections of the event as well as any pictures I might have.

[MetroMPG]

Wow - epic roadside repair story!

Ooh, ooh! I have one too: the Firefly developed an exhaust leak on the way to the event. So it sounded a little ratty. Original 11 year old pipes are starting to let go - that'll be the very first repair/replacement I'll have to do to the car. Yay for barn finds. (OK, not as good as your story.)

That's two wheel bearing failures for participants - yours and the solar car's.

Will: remember you guys bugging me for NOT pushing my car through the lower staging area? I only did it after we got up the hill. Maybe if I had pushed it there as well, the numbers wouldn't have been so dissapointing. I just forgot. It's not like it's hard to push!

Matt: speaking of Sunday paper, the Corning Leader ran an article about the event in today's edition. It didn't mention EM specifically - just the Canadian with the weird car. (We emphatically pointed out our EM shirts and plugged the forum when the reporter asked how we all knew each other, but I guess he didn't get the hint.) I'll ask him if I can repost it here - it's not on their web site.

[MetroMPG]

FYI, my SG2 said my average speed for the event was 37 mph. But that's the overall trip, definitely not the average driving speed.

May include time spent sitting at the start, the mandatory 10 minute stop in Geneva, the bit of urban driving in Geneva and Watkins Glen at the end, plus the refueling.

Oh, and my brief stop in Ovid to yank my alternator wire.

EDIT: My calculated average driving speed was 45.4 mph (79.4 mi, 1 hour 45 minutes behind the wheel).

[SVOboy]

Here are some images from the event. Certainly a good time. I don't know how much more I can add to what has already been said, but pictures are always fun.



A picture of all the ecomodder rides that participated in the green grand prix fuel economy run.



Darin receiving his award like a prince.




Two pictures of the deck lid I made the night before the GGP.



Darin goes for a ride in Willie's prius this morning.

[blownb310]

Outstanding coverage of this event fellas! Love it, and darn it I should have been there!

Events like this are so rare too. I wish there were more of them in the northeast.

Mike