[AT] OT: Gas story

[Henry Miller]

On Tuesday 03 July 2007 07:52:56 am Francis Robinson wrote:

>     I used to say that the biggest gauge on the dash should be a big vacuum
> gauge marked in red yellow and green and when it gets in the red, lights
> should flash and "hard driving" alarms go off...   ;-)

Careful here.   There are a lot of myths about fuel milage.

Your engine is most efficient at turning fuel into torque at about 2000 rpm, 
with the pedal to the metal. Also, this higher the gear, the better fuel 
milage you get  (There is diminishing returns in this, but unless you drive a 
race car you don't have a gear high enough to go over the top)  So if you 
have a manual transmission you should be accelerating hard until you reach 
the speed you want to go (but don't spin the tires).  Generally about 55mph 
is your ideal speed from a MPG standpoint, going slower than the ideal speed 
costs fuel as well.   (Remember sitting at a stoplight with the engine on you 
are getting 0 mpg)

Of course if you have a slushbox you don't get a choice.   In that case you 
are best with slow accelerations to keep the RPMs down.

In any case, touching the brakes is the worst thing you can do - you are 
turning all your energy into heat.

>     People don't have to go to extremes with fuel mileage... If starting
> tomorrow all drivers across the country would just switch to driving
> "reasonable" the amount of fuel required would drop like a rock. Maybe as
> much as 15 to 20%. That is not small potatoes. Its never going to happen of
> course... but what a difference it could make.
>     The public wants good mileage but they want the car makers to do it for
> them...

True.