Darn thing looks like its ready to roll over any second!

http://video.foxnews.com/v/153033149...ylist_id=87937

Yeah, I want to hit the freeway in that.

High Pressure Slicks, great on wet (or even damp roads)

Enough room for a 5'2' coed, how's a real person going to fit.

Coasting. Great for a mileage contest, how about for that morning commute?

I do a lot of coasting with my cars

It works better for gasoline stick shift cars than my diesel automatic car

With stick shift i often get three untis of distance to one unit of acceleration typicaly on flat road I will accelerate to 60MPH and then coast back down to 40 MPH making the average speed about 45MPH
In My SX 1400 Fiat Bravo car the differences are approx driving steady state ~40MPH best case is about ~43MPG
Using coasting best case is about ~40MPG doing 60mph down to 40MPH average ~45MPH
More normally I tend to do 70Mph coasting down to 50MPH and get 35MPG versus steady state 60MPH where MPG will be more like ~30MPGhods
I still haven't figured why higher speed costing tends to be better than steady state driving at higher speeds and the opposite seems is true at lower speeds
I suspect the gear ratios are the issues and am looking to convert the final drive to higher gear rate .
Then I figure i can get 10% better MPG overall and better MPG with coasting methods across the full range

Around town commutes costing increases the MPG ~25MPG to about ~30MPG

its marginal stuff but still 5 MPG on 25 MPG in town driving is nearly 20% gain using coasting methods

On the automatic it only coast at high speeds when it goes into the 3rd th gear not overdrive like 4th so is only coasting between 50 down to 30MPH with not a lot of noticeable saving from normal 40MPG when on the highway operating at speeds from 40 to 80MPH the MPG hardly changes much

coasting on roads across flat plains where there is gentle undulations with gradual climbs and gradual down slopes seems to return better results to MPG than pure flat roads .
Coasting in mountain roads with steep climbs and steep down slopes doesn't seem to work well as so much fuel is used climbing and the engine has to tick over to supply brakes and power for the down slope that it is all marginal stuff

Ralf

Originally Posted by treehog

I do a lot of coasting with my cars

It works better for gasoline stick shift cars than my diesel automatic car

With stick shift i often get three untis of distance to one unit of acceleration typicaly on flat road I will accelerate to 60MPH and then coast back down to 40 MPH making the average speed about 45MPH
In My SX 1400 Fiat Bravo car the differences are approx driving steady state ~40MPH best case is about ~43MPG
Using coasting best case is about ~40MPG doing 60mph down to 40MPH average ~45MPH
More normally I tend to do 70Mph coasting down to 50MPH and get 35MPG versus steady state 60MPH where MPG will be more like ~30MPGhods
I still haven't figured why higher speed costing tends to be better than steady state driving at higher speeds and the opposite seems is true at lower speeds
I suspect the gear ratios are the issues and am looking to convert the final drive to higher gear rate .
Then I figure i can get 10% better MPG overall and better MPG with coasting methods across the full range

Around town commutes costing increases the MPG ~25MPG to about ~30MPG

its marginal stuff but still 5 MPG on 25 MPG in town driving is nearly 20% gain using coasting methods

On the automatic it only coast at high speeds when it goes into the 3rd th gear not overdrive like 4th so is only coasting between 50 down to 30MPH with not a lot of noticeable saving from normal 40MPG when on the highway operating at speeds from 40 to 80MPH the MPG hardly changes much

coasting on roads across flat plains where there is gentle undulations with gradual climbs and gradual down slopes seems to return better results to MPG than pure flat roads .
Coasting in mountain roads with steep climbs and steep down slopes doesn't seem to work well as so much fuel is used climbing and the engine has to tick over to supply brakes and power for the down slope that it is all marginal stuff

Ralf

It must be an exercise in frustration to follow you on the highway.

Originally Posted by RumRunner_1492

It must be an exercise in frustration to follow you on the highway.

That reminds me of the father of an old girlfriend of mine. She had told me she was subject to carsickness, but never seemed to have a problem in my car.

Then one day her dad drove me, her and the mom to a restaurant. If the speed limit was 35, he would speed up to 40, coast down to 30, and repeat.

I've never suffered from motion sickness, but that was close!

Obviously not a production vehicle but a very cool engineering exercise,

Originally Posted by kf2qd

Coasting. Great for a mileage contest, how about for that morning commute?

Can't you hear it....

"I was driving my Obamamobile and the coasting feature made me 6 hours late for work. Bt the way, can I get a raise?"

I'll settle for 10% of that mileage in a decent sized sedan like my Mazda 3.

Problem I'm having right now is I just got new tires. Quieter, smoother, less rolling resistance, better grip ... my average MPG just went down 3.

Originally Posted by RCWorks

Can't you hear it....

"I was driving my Obamamobile and the coasting feature made me 6 hours late for work. Bt the way, can I get a raise?"

What is it with you? Perhaps you need to see a psychiatrist about your Obama obsession...

Originally Posted by Bob HSG

What is it with you? Perhaps you need to see a psychiatrist about your Obama obsession...

Did someone post to you?

All that work building that car and the best advice they can give to drivers is "if you have to slam on your brakes coming to a stop sign you're probably using too much fuel to get there" ? Duh.....no kidding. Someone figured that out decades ago. Problem is more than half of all drivers drive like that today. You will never retrain them to drive a car using this technology.

Originally Posted by RCWorks

Did someone post to you?

I'm just curious why you would bring his name into this discussion.

Originally Posted by Bob HSG

I'm just curious why you would bring his name into this discussion.

Did you fail to notice that Obama bought a major intrest in a car company and fired the CEO? Then he decides what kind of cars they will make. Just another in a long line of failures(The Chevy Volt).

Are you one of those outback guys that does not get news?

Originally Posted by flyinwalenda

All that work building that car and the best advice they can give to drivers is "if you have to slam on your brakes coming to a stop sign you're probably using too much fuel to get there" ? Duh.....no kidding. Someone figured that out decades ago. Problem is more than half of all drivers drive like that today. You will never retrain them to drive a car using this technology.

The thing that makes me chuckle is pulling up next to a big ole truck and when the light changes Buuuuwwwwaaaahhhh off they go at full throttle usually while pulling a trailer of some sort