Yup not to mention screwing up the evaporative emissions control system on other cars. I had a lengthy discussion with them about it but they didn't listen. Of course the problem is that some entrants DID top off their tanks to the tip top when they started which is they NESEA filled all the tanks to the tip top.
The real problem is how to you ACCURATELY and RELIABLY measure fuel usage? The car computer isn't bad but it's not exactly spot on, it read under on mine. And they corrected for odometer error even. So who knows.
Anyway the REAL point to the event is to raise public awareness of alternative energy transportation technology and they achieved that goal beautifully by being a part of the saratoga auto show, it was amazing to see all the fat old cigar smoking 68 Camero owners milling around looking at all the hybrids lined up. The Tour de Sol is a PR event first and a contest second, you have to watch those guys like a hawk when they calculate your score. I participated in it 3 years in a row in college with our electric scirocco and our bio-d hybrid s-10 and almost every day we found errors in our scoring and had to contest them. Usually we got them fixed but still... Most of the people who put on the event are volunteers working for free and the few who do work full time for NESEA aren't getting rich off it, that's for sure, they were in the red after last years Tour de Sol. The DOE used to give them a lot of funding for the tour, before W got elected and cut the budged. So the Monte Carlo rally is really what saved the event. And overall it was great. Except for the getting screwed out of first place bit which hopefully I can get squared away but I still will have missed out on the awards ceremony. And I'm assuming I was second, which I'm not sure about, but dude, I hit 62 MPG in a hybrid civic over 170 miles! I guess either way thats still something to be proud of. Can I call myself a hypermiler yet?
