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Post by Roland of Gilead on Aug 31, 2008 21:22:55 GMT -5
I'm in Central California. Just drove down here to visit the ex. Haven't seen her in about a year. Anyway, last time I took a longer trip, I set my cruise control on 70. My little Acura isn't very good on gas, and the best I could do was 24.5mpg. This time, due to high prices, I disciplined myself and set the cruise control at 55mpg. I filled up when I got here in Merced, and my mileage in my little "muscle car" ended up being 31.4mpg. That's a remarkable increase of 28%.
Most of us don't do highway driving all that often, as most of our business is around town. But, if everyone drove no faster than 55mph on the highway, the cumulative national savings would create a gas surplus and send prices plunging.
Voluntary speed reduction will never make an impact, since individual action never helps. So, I'm afraid I'm ready to back a new Federal law. But then...I'm no Libertarian!
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Post by Shadout Mapes on Aug 31, 2008 22:51:06 GMT -5
I do recall in hearing, coming up during my childhood years, that studies had concluded that driving in the 42 to 47 mph range was the most efficient as the problem of exponential fluid compressibility of our atmosphere would erode any further benefits in mileage for any greater speed for any average up-to-date passenger land Vehicle of the era. Also, it is true that later increase in efficiency in motor technology has been completely squandered for faster accelerating passenger vehicles as a marketing tool appealing to the "power driver". Silly humans! You must atone! ><Tomasina ChicaWolverina!
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Post by davidlee on Sept 2, 2008 8:47:07 GMT -5
55 eh? So, how did you handle all the road rage around you?
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Post by Roland of Gilead on Sept 2, 2008 15:54:10 GMT -5
55 eh? So, how did you handle all the road rage around you? It wasn't too bad, since I was on a wide highway all the way, so it was easy for people to get around me. Anyway, I can tell you that drivers in this part of the country are a bit more courteous than Florida...especially South Florida, where they love to blast their horns at you. You don't get much of that around here. I think it's because of all your transplants from the Northeast. My mileage on the return trip wasn't nearly as good, since it came out to 26mpg. I guess that's because much of the trip heading there was downhill, and heading back it was uphill.
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