Here is an article that covers some of the fun that went on at last year's Hybridfest. While a lot of the article is about Wayne Gerdes creator of cleanmpg.com, it also covers quite a few of the hybird community notables like Hobbit, Dave Bassage, Dan Kroushl, and more! There's even a plug for Greenhybrid on pages three and four!

Read more about the mileage run (in which he ended up getting over 150 mpg!!) at Mother Jones.

 

Some of these names are quite familiar.

 

Bah, I was the one who suggested we eBay Waynes shoes!

 

Fun article! All kinds of details I had never heard about Wayne. Very interesting- and yes, many of the names and vehicles are definitely familiar. I hadn't realized that there were no women who entered the Challenge, though- I wonder why that is? I know there aren't too many of us here, but it's still too bad. If hypermiling became a 'sport' like NASCAR or those other car races on TV with all male drivers, I think it'd be the poorer for it. I know I'll never be quite like Wayne and some others here, but the lack of women makes me wish things were different.

 

leahbeatle,

Wayne's posts here are under his nickname xcel - plenty to search from.

The 20-mile hypermiling challenge at HybridFest 2006 was supervised by Linda Weidemann. (see http://hybridfest.com/)

Hypermiling dates back to at least gas rationing during World War II, maybe even as early as the 1930's. I recall a mid 1970's Reader's Digest edition suggesting hypermiling if you are running on empty.

One thing about hypermiling I want to stress is some of the techinques can be incorporated into everday driving without being that "farm tractor". Some of those things include:

• Gradual acceleration to cruising speed
• Coasting instead of heavy/moderate braking
• Keep a constant speed to avoid unecessary acceleration/breaking
• Be very aware of your road conditions along with your car condition so you can plan how to drive efficiently.

 

Certainly this set works for me. My only suggestion is to clarify a couple of items specific to the Prius. Similar data for the Hondas, Fords, other Toyota and GM models probably exists somewhere but I tend not to follow those technologies:

1. Gradual acceleration - should be within the most efficient ICE speed range. In the case of the Prius, it appears to be from 1,200-2,600 rpm. But it is better to keep some 'head room' at the top and use 1,200-2,400 rpm.
2. Coasting - can be done by feathering the accelerator or on level or up grades, using "N". Feathering the accelerator is a bit tricky without extra instrumentation.
3. Constant speed - is also very good especially if you can avoid the 42 mph transition speed, unique to the Prius. At 42 mph, the Prius has to spin the ICE and it works best if you can stay say at 38 mph and slower or 45 mph and higher. Part of it is also knowing what mph corresponds to what MPG.
4. Road conditions - can also be handled for commuting routes by route planning. For example, on my daily commute, I use the access road where I can safely stay in the outside lane at 30 mph versus the high-speed lanes where 50 mph is also the minimum. Also, I can use shorter routes with more stops and reduce the total distance without having to waste much gas. The shorter distances compensate for the slower speeds and I get to work in the same time interval.

These are sensible approaches that with the addition of vehicle specific characteristics, allows any driver to meet and exceed the EPA ratings, even the originals.

Bob Wilson

 

Bob,

I intentionaly made my list generic and short. Glad you mentioned access lanes - I find that very useful myself.

 

I appreciated that and wanted to add some vehicle specific characteristics, Prius NHW11 model, to help quantify the values.

What I'd like to see would be a concerted effort to measure the vehicle drag parameters and ICE specific fuel consumption curves for each hybrid. This is the key to letting each operator know the optimum MPG performance parameters and MPG limits.

Bob Wilson

 

I know that Wayne posts as excel. Or at least, he did when I first joined, but stopped shortly thereafter. He's an impressive guy, and I did meet him, just in passing, at the Chicago GreenHybrid lunch in November. 'meet' might even be too strong- I said Hi to a whole bunch of people, including him. I even saw -and took a picture of!- Justin's car, the red Insight mentioned in the article, though I hadn't read the article until this week.

I suppose it's really my own little celebrity sighting- what with all this media coverage! (batting my eyelashes slowly) No; all kidding aside, he's got a well-deserved reputation and it's impressive, the things I've heard on the forum, as well as in the article.

And it's nice to hear that a woman was involved in the event. I just thought the author's point about all male entrants was too bad, since I'd thought about driving up to WI for the event and might have even entered, myself, though I ended up being unable to go. But if I had, then I would have been the only woman entering. I'm not sure if I can explain my feeling about that, exactly- it makes me less comfortable with the idea and slightly less likely to do it next year. It's like that hybrid lunch I went to; the idea of meeting a bunch of people you know through the internet is intimidating enough without going through the responses and realizing you're the only woman who rsvp'd. When Tom said he was bringing his wife, I definitely felt better about the whole thing, and in the end, there were several women there, and it was fine. I'm just of the opinion that it would be better all around if plenty of women, as well as men, were involved in these kinds of things. No one would dispute that.

 

Leah

When we were forming the team of drivers for the Insight Marathon we tried very hard to get a well rounded group. We did get male drivers from all over the country, different ages, and different car experience, but even though we asked we couldn't get an experienced female driver to join us. I know it is hard to be "the only one" in a group, but some time you need to step up and be the "first one". Most people are much better at following then they are at leading. I hope that you will follow your interests and take on a leadership role. There are plenty of skilled female drivers on this sight and others that might follow your lead, I hope so. You go girl.....Louis