"All in the luck, and/or the uncommon Rarity".

Just in the early beginings of getting my terrain handled as far as the what-to-do's & when-to-do's. Quite the gas when the rollers are just cooking at a ease unnotcied, espcially even more so, when one realizies when the screw ups are begining to happen. Headwinds & hills. Open road or drafting. 57 miles per hour to 74 miles per hour. Quite the mix & match with the this or that. Cruise control, what's that ???? lol. It's all good untill you hit the 5 bars of white.


Then things become, how shall we say, "Utopia, and I can only hope for More" !!!!


There is one down slope that really isn't all to long, and not much more steeper than the rest in my return trek of the 70 miles home, that for some reason gives the sweet spot to try, and conquer. Four days straight I take to the crest at 68 miles per hour, and as I begin decend at 70 miles per hour, and cut the trottle loose at 72 miles per hour +, the touch of the feather to the peddle takes the green to white spontainiously, almost like magic. Don't ask me how, because at this stage of "Playing the Game", I don't know why.

Mon. thru Thur. four bars as come all so easy, and yesterday I hit thee "BIG 5", perhaps the slope downward help to hold it for 2-4 seconds. Again I don't know the how's & why's. So excited, I had to make a call to the only person who I had a contact for, and that would understand. Hope you got the exicment of it all Darren ( aka flash ).

But today's glory, "Unmatched" for this novice since rolling the "PinBall" out the dealer's showroom door. It was thee "BIG 5" once more, and held because knowing, and/or being ready because of what has been happening I was ready for the count of the one, one-thousands. As the numbers rose, my eyes stayed wide hopeing for another bar to become apparent.


"Utopia to date stands at 7.5 seconds", and ends as the car rolls toward the next uphill swing !!!!


Yea I know. Things such as this really need the proof-positive to some. Perhaps a video in the making. Once more, I wouldn't know how. And in all honesty, it would be just the real blast to make the attempt. But hey, this new found love affair for the american passion of the automobile must has some limits, besides speed, lol. That, I am becoming to understand a cool apperciation for.

"Anyone else a 5 stripes note, and/or the it only gets Better".

John

Jonny - Sorry I did not get to my phone/VM when you called to tell me (I was the first here to hear about it -- woohoo) but you are correct in your excitement. Look in the "Share" section for two photos of when I achieved 5 bars of EV assist. I had attained it before but did not capture it (it was too blurry to count 5). The first time ever it hit I just thought it was 4 bars like everyone said was the maximum but it just looked more full than before and when it dropped one bar of assist and was STILL at four bars then I knew I was actually at 5 bars previously. Woot! I then was able to capture two photos showing that I held the 5 bars of assist for close to 0.5 mile. It definitely only gets better as you go.

--> Averaged 685 miles/week and 49.0 mpg in first year (35.7k miles from Aug 7, 2006 to Aug 7, 2007)

Darren,

"Yea-Yea" that's it ....

That's awsume. Mind if I piratize your photo bro, lol. I've had more than my share of wild momments in my day, but your a brave man wheelin' & snappin' @ the same time.

Excitment builds as I hope three times the charm. Defiinatly no doubs to my peeps w/ the first one. The eye can catch the bar graphs when they jump a notch, but the hand grabbs for the cell phone when the deal does a double. The first 5 striper went from 3 to 5, back to 4, before rasing again to hold for the few seconds it did.

Again, it is just so uncanny how it just happened ( hopeing for happens, like as in always ). Adrenilin rush for the hybrider's, lol. It become common occurance to feather, attain/hold one bar of green, or hold things not showing nata while @ 100% jazz. But to kick in the assit end it isn't as all that easy, at least not yet. But that's coming too.

And that is what has me going on this. Is it just the speeds as it push over the certain slope of this particular hill. Hell if I know !!!! I mean, I don't even try !!!! I just let off the pedal, wait for full green, feather it, and "Whamm-o"!!!! Assit jumps like a rictar scale !!!! 4 days/4 hurrrahh's !!!! Never though I would find good reason "To want To" go to work, lol.

.... mine's just like that !!!!

John

p.s. Do you see this happen regularly in the same spot ???? Excited, you bet !!!!

Jonny - I will let you "borrow" my first photo of the 5-bar assist (I emailed it to you). This one is a little blurry but why would I be proud of a blurry photo of 4 bars, right? You can see that the segment for that day was at 57.4 miles and was 55.0 mpg at the time. This was probably half or a third of the total miles I drove that day. In my job I almost never take the same route so I never have it happen at the same place/time when it does. I do notice that, as you notice, it isn't me doing it but it is the car. I will maintain the same throttle position but the ground will slowly fall away and because the earth is dropping this creates a natural slow-and-gently increase in the EV assist and if the hill gets just a few feet more of elevation drop then the car automatically moves itself into 4 bars and then 5 bars. I find that if I "try" and coax it from 4 to 5 that I can not do it but if I hold at 4 and let the road do this for me then it will bump up to 5 bars for half a second (usually it is just a bump and then instantly thereafter the ICE kicks in and I lose all assist).

Also, after reviewing this photo I realized that you couldn't tell that I was in EV mode since the Instant MPG gauge is not shown so the photos I uploaded to this site has the EV bar showing 100 mpg.

--> Averaged 685 miles/week and 49.0 mpg in first year (35.7k miles from Aug 7, 2006 to Aug 7, 2007)

Darren,

"Raaaats & double Raaaaats" !!!!

Urban traffic was too tight as I was heading south toward the Minn. river bridge/valley after yesterday's bout with the working fate side of things. Staying with the flow keep things at a max of 62 miles per hour, so the speed factor couldn't come into play. Athough, having to cruise @ the slower pace gave the chance to observe the slope of the one hill where the magic seems work.

It could well be the ground to car factor as you describe. Without holding up traffic I manage to give myself a slight buffer zone of space, as I got closer to the first crest. But really not enough to give much push to the trottle, as I have before. Coming over & begining the decent down from the crest I could see things look flat, but there was a short added drop to the slope.

Sure enough, easily given the time to get the "PinBall' into the play mode of the "100% valve jazz & but only 1 bar Assist" showing, as I hit the added drop @ 65 miles per hour 2 bars of white were added. Car continued to hold as been the case all week untill the base of the hill. Once more the thrill played out to certain degree, but short lived as I got set for the down swing grade.

It is really too bad I can't somehow show the terreain of the Minn. river valley to the board, as it lays heading into & out of the river. The south side, just "Tits Up" as I head each morning ( has to about a 3 + stretch of decending drops ). This is where I have my best shot to get the knack of feathering the pedal. I can do bring the car into/out of "EV Mode" at will, and easily add 4-6 mpg ( which I lose a couple of heading home )

Now with the game being brought to new level with the decent of the northside, one shall have to see. With all the added excitment I haven't really haven't taken the time to observe much else other than the white of the assist. It's to be cool knowing I gain strongly in the mpg by pulling 3-5 bars before crossing the river for the near fatal ( lol ) accent out of the valley, where even in the old days of the "Ridiculas Work Truck" & it's V6 I could drop miles per hour without too much trouble.

"It's the little Things" !!!!

John

p.s. "Cool & Thankx" on the snapp bro. Everyday is a holiday, as X-mas always has a way of coming early