Have you guys heard of hypermiling? Apparently with crazy driving and maneuvering people can get insane gas mileage.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/01/king_of_the_hypermilers.html
This guy can get 59 mpg in a plain Honda Accord, and over 100 mpg in a hybrid. Getting these numbers require nutso tactics like turning your car off while drafting an eighteen-wheeler and turning without braking. But there are definitely some good tips the normal person can use. Tonight I parked our car at the curb without using any brakes. I coasted about two blocks, turned our corner super slowly and rolled on into its spot. That should save something, but it probably would have been better had I turned the car off two blocks away. Maybe I’ll try that next time. This is doable, cause it’s a pretty dead frontage road. Anyhoo, it it a really interesting article.
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I drive a Lincoln Towncar. If I coast enough, I might get 15 MPG.
Maybe if you hooked a mule up front and never turned on the engine you might get up to 23. Of course no ladder in the back seat.
There used to be a lot of these hypermiles, but they all died trying to draft 18 wheelers…
Mythbusters just did a special on this type of thing. They showed that by drafting (getting less than 5 ft from an 18 wheeler) can improve gas mileage by 80%, however they were quick to point out that 80 of all accidents on the highway involving semis are caused by cars following too closely to a semi..
I would just be very careful. I too try some of these tricks… I can almost coast from my house to bretts which is almost 1 mile away in lawrence… but I would not turn my car off.. too dangerous not to have the option to hit the gas if there was an emergent cause.
Yes, drafting is dangerous, but several of the other things these guys do are practical. The guy interviewed says that if every car had an instant mpg display people would use something like 20% less gas. Of course this is just his opinion, but what an easy and cheap way to reduce oil consumption a little bit. Things like stop and go driving, accelerating fast, and driving over 55 mph are all gas wasters and don’t get you anywhere significantly faster on normal commutes.
Not too flaunt the greatness of th Towncar too much, but it does have instant MPG display. Its awesome, when I punch it, it shows 5.7MPG. At that point I wonder if I can hook up a 20 foot diameter pipe directly from my car to an oilfield in the Middle East - and then listen to the beautiful sucking sound of pure American automotive power. Mmmmmm, tasty.