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The Dutch, Scottish, & Indian people megathread (Driving economically)


Roman

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Get a bike for cheap running (yes rego/gear etc is more expensive) I got 3L per 100 km on my fxr. Gb seems to get 5

 

Unless it's a Honda C50 bikes are wayyyyyy more expensive in my experience per km. Replacing tyres every 5-10,000km, sprockets/chains etc.

 

My best run on a trip was in a 1NZ-FE powered '08 Corolla wagon. 3.9l/100km Nelson to Oamaru - but then it's down hill...

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Also, how accurate are your odometers? If your speedo reads 110 when you're actually only doing 100, is it clocking up 10% better l/100km?

I noticed the Vantage speedo is bang on compared to those roadside radar doohickeys so my 14.2 avg l/100km is presumably moderately accurate.

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Used to drive an old leaf sprung 4wd Hilux with a wildly inaccurate speedo. At an indicated 150 km/hr the Terratrip gave the actual speed at 132 km/hr. I figure the 15" wheels that had been substituted for the factory 16" ones accounted for a large part of the error.

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Oh yeah, 918, Nurburgring in 6:57, and 11L/100km on gas, and 3.5L/100km equiv on full electric.

Magnets!

 

Allegedly a 6.8kwH battery (compared to a Prius 1.4), and will charge the battery on ~2L fuel containing 2x 8.7kWH/L theoretical gives ~38% electrical efficiency to charge. Which is rather good for a piston motor.

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Wifes 3008 returns 7l/100 with total disregard for economy and short trip running (tank fill calcs), gets down into the 5's with a long trip, still with disregard to any sort of economic driving style.

I suspect a modern dieez in something aerodynamic driven gently could return some pretty surprising numbers.

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Haha crackup!
 
This is kind of the flaw with measuring Coefficient of Drag, frontal area is part of the equation.
If he's kept the same CD but increased frontal area by a fair bit, then he HAS increased drag.
For the Kayak to be "cost neutral" he'd need to have ended up with a lower CD to offset the extra area.
 
Not sure why he's bothered calculating CD anyway because solidworks would have given him the total drag number (which is more meaningful) in order to run his calculation with.

His numbers are way off anyway, with a sanity check there's no friggen way a late model BMW has a CD over 0.5

It's a nice model of the car though! Wish I knew how to draw stuff that well in Solidworks haha.
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ooooh I like this thread. 

 

Hello, my name is Alex Davidson, of Clan Chattan. (we hail from just above Inverness. Then my mums side...Mcmahon. So yeah..I like saving money.

 

Hannah is half Indian. She too likes a bargain.  Although her other side is of French blood so put her in a hot hatch and watch the fuel gauge drop?...

 

But we have owned many rotaries and now the V6 Viva. Life's a struggle sometimes..

 

Anyway. I keep a record of fuel usage. I have a notebook in the Viva and simply record the mileage each time I fill the tank back to the click. It takes i minute to note down and I have a good idea of how things are running. Its fun (I like figures etc)

 

So far with the Viva being carb fed turbo rotary powered I was seeing around 11.3 L/100  (25 UK mpg) on average.

 

With the much faster 2.0 V6 I averaged exactly 9.74 L/100  (29mpg) over 7500 miles

 

Then 50 more ponies added in with the 2.5 V6 and its dropped down to 10.1 L/100  (28mpg) over 5500 miles

 

The figures are all corrected for speedo error. So far in all the cars Ive had the speedos on average read between 5-10% too high, which I guess makes sense for safety and great numbers. 

 

I know I can get better by leaning my car out more. Its still too rich. Plus having recently activated the acceleration enrichment on my ECU has bumped consumption up. But it is way nicer to drive for newbies. Hannah and I had just got used to the flat spots in driving it. So I plan on tuning the AE until its just enough 'extra' because those little squirts are tugging at my Kilt and upsetting my moth filled wallet.  But boy is it fun. I don't tend to nanny it often and when I have been using it for commuting with the intention to get great mileage I always end up ruining the figures at some point with some spirited driving.

 

I do have to face the fact that my figures will never be amazing because the Viva is shaped like a brick and I can really feel the drag above say 90kph compared to our boring old Sentra.   Ahhh...the boring old 1.6 litre NZ new Sentra  wagon with its NZ market only carb fed twincam. The carb mouth measures about 40mm. Its tiny! But that bland little white plastic car has seen 5.6 L/100 (50mpg) under the feathery right foot of Mrs Unia. Being a Nissan we have not had to do anything but change the oil and tyres. Proper cheap motoring in a car that cost $1100. But its soooooooo bland, in fact quite nauseating to drive.

 

My next classic will be another Hillman imp but with a BMW bike engine.     Fast, fun and cheap to run.

 

Oh yeah- our House returns 12 MPG (23L/100) which aint too bad :-)

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With the Niva back running on all 4 cylinders & twin carbs ive been doing my best to work out fuel economy,  so far I haven't got any open road numbers but around town including towing a hefty trailer i've had an average of ~250km/40l tank or 6.2km/l, not awesome compared to you electron controlled wizards but thats equal to the open road economy obtained before I found the buggered head gasket, really hoping I can get it back to open road economy of 10km/l, its all looking hopeful at least.

Also purchased some differential air pressure sensors from ali to hook up to the carbs as a digital manometer so I can sort the balancing a bit better (anyone tried this?) once thats sorted i'll add a tps in an effort to relate fuel use with manifold pressure, throttle position and engine speed, kinda like the vacuum economy gauge on some mid 80's cars, but more complicated! It will be interesting to see how the 3 relate to each other and if its useable.

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