Hi All:

___Sorry for the OT post …

Ole_don:

___Item 1. Driving is risky behavior. Some of us attempt to double the EPA when doing so and this is one method of many to achieve that goal … Once you learn about an IMA’s Autostop, a FAS (in the Honda’s and all non-hybrid’s) and a Glide in the Ford and Toyota hybrids is just the next level.

___Item 2. You have never driven in a competitive high FE mode lately or continuously then? Go grab an Insight 5-speed and take off in a 0 - 50 time of 45 + seconds. Lean burn from third gear on and without assist all the way up. Your FE will be higher then those barreling away. The highest I have seen was 100 + mpg in < 1.2 miles from cold IIRC. A warm day but dead cold from the parking lot at work after an 8 hour hiatus … After you reach 50, drop back down to ~ 28 - 30 miles per hour in fifth gear at ~ 1,100 RPM. Just hold your cruise speed there and you will find out just how inefficient the Insight’s ICE is at the supposedly least efficient intake opening while barely above idle. It must be hell on that little 1.0 L ICE to suck in that charge but you will change your story once you see what happens on the Instantaneous with your very own eyes! Take an HCH or Prius II and run WOT to speed and Glide/Coast. Your FE will be much lower then a properly performed pulse. Look up the “Tbaleno takes the gloves off” thread for our own experimentation. Much over 2,500 RPM and you lost FE over the cycle. Much below and you did as well … I believe the most efficient acceleration rates may be following the torque curve at lower RPM’s in today’s automobiles but even that doesn’t match up with what we found in Tom’s CVT based HCH-I. I routinely receive > 100 mpg driving back from the Shell gas station at far below WOT (always < 2,000 RPM during any pulse) in a low speed P&G in the non-hybrid semi-lux Accord. That station is ~ 1.5 miles away and 20 - 30’ below my homes elevation if that helps … Let me know if you want a pic the next time I fill up

___Do you remember seeing any of those Shell Eco racers hitting double City EPA in whatever they drove back then as in back and forth to work over 20,000 + miles? Now you should be seeing the big picture although I would have loved to drive one of those SAAB’s w/ the Freewheeling handle/mode? It was a SAAB that came with that feature, correct? Those early pioneers were the inspiration of many a hypermiler today and we have simply built upon what they discovered way back when is all …

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes