George, now that the odometer is no longer accurate, how are you
determining the exact distance you've traveled?
Dave
-----Original Message-----
From: shotimes-admin@autox.team.net
[mailto:shotimes-admin@autox.team.net] On Behalf Of krazgeo@comcast.net
Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2006 1:17 AM
To: shotimes@autox.team.net; SHOTimes
Cc: TechSHO
Subject: [Shotimes] My MPG Test is Working!!
"We're on the road now.....
Speaking of which.....Yay!! It works!! (The idea of larger tires to
get economy.)
We're on a week's trip to NE California and Crater Lake. The first day
took the GS from home to South Lake Tahoe via Hwy 50, which is two lane
much of the way up the hill to Echo Summit, which is about 7000 feet or
so. We stopped at a Costco just at the base of the hill to
refuel....might as well since the gas is cheapest there. From there to
the lake, climbing the hill and driving at the limit with intelligence,
it got 22 mpg, with three folks and about 75 lbs of luggage. That was
about the same as the BMW gets....nice, but no big deal.
(The AAA "How does this car rate" website says their '98-'05 (one of
those) GS 300 got about 17 mpg in mixed driving....I KNOW I can beat
that, without doing anything to the car. I'm pretty sure this one was
rated at 17 city, and 23 highway.)
So, anyway....the next leg was the test...today's trip from Tahoe
through Reno and Susanville up 395 and 299/139 to Klamath Falls and 140
to Medford. That was 401.1 miles (7.5 hours of driving) from the Costco
in Carson City to the one in Medford. I kept the speed at the speed
limit....it was 70 in Nevada, 65 in Ca., and 55 in Oregon. We did have
to stop three times for road construction...waiting in line for the
pilot car to lead the oncoming traffic through a one-lane stretch (I
shut it down each time), plus the obligatory tinkle stops, and we also
had to drive through the downtown sections of Carson City, and also
Klamath Falls. The K Falls stretch was about 15 miles, and took the
overall average down by a mpg or so, I'm sure. I was watching the gas
gauge 'not' fall down fast today like it used to do, and was looking for
a good number. I got it.
It got (as best as I can figure with the numbers I have....) 30.6159
mpg, using 13.101 gallons to go that distance. Altitude had some input,
too...the average altitude for this leg was over 4,000 feet. We'll
check what it gets below 500 MSL on the way home down I-5 on Friday.
I think the engine is at the ideal rev range now, at 2500 +/- 50 at 65
mph. Climbing up a steady gentle slope in Oregon at 55, where the revs
were down to about 2150, the car could not maintain speed in 5th gear
without complaining. The cruise would instantly shift to 4th gear. If
I held it with my foot, it would decrease speed very (!) slowly, until
the torque converter would unlock, allowing the revs to go up to 2400.
Then the car could accelerate...very slowly...but accelerate, at that
road speed. That tells me the torque is a bit low below 22-2300 RPM.
2500 looks like a good all around engine target speed. (I was thinking
of trying to gear it down to 2100 at 65...probably too slow.)
Now, if I apply the same logic to the SHO, and modify the front strut
spring seats to allow 1 inch larger tires for cruising, I should be able
to get 35 mpg at 70 mph at sea level. That'll be fun to try!! ;-)
It's got LOTS of torque, right?
George
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