black label

First off, I can afford to fill my tank everyday if I need to so don't tell me to get a Prius. This wasn't about pinching pennies, it was about reaching the 500 mile mark on 1 tank of gas. It was a challenge not a necessity.

I have a 100 mile (about 50/50 backroad/highway) round trip commute that essentially required me to fill up every 4 working days. It is a relatively boring drive (especially if you do it 5 or 6 days a week) and I wouldn't consider it quality time with my car.

We all know gas prices are on the rise so after reading the Hypermilers thread, I decided to do some experimentation with my driving style to see what type of fuel economy I could attain.

The only change I have made is to throw the car in neutral (CL-S 6MT) on the downhill sections and coast until I am about 3mph below the speed limit. If I have traffic behind me I don't drop below the limit, I'm not trying to be a road hazard. I know the car shuts fuel to the engine at a coast when in gear, however you still have the mechanical drag of turning the engine and it causes the car to lose speed rapidly where neutral allow you to free coast so I find the benefits to be greater in neutral. I am still accelerating like I was fleeing a crime scene and Vtec is being used evertime I get on the highway so I'm not driving like a your grandma, I'm just not driving down hills.

First off you would be amazed at how long the car will go in neutral with a slight downhill grade, there are 2 spots on my trip where I can roll at the speed limit for a solid mile. The second thing you start to pick up on is how much aerodynamic drag is increased at speeds over 60mph. I cannot coast downhill at 70 mph with out losing speed however I can coast downhill at 40mph and pick up speed.

In the end I got 32.56 MPG over the the 510.1 miles. I think that's pretty F'ing good for this car.

Pics for of the results...
The miles on 1 tank

The receipt from the fill up

Da Machine...

Moog-Type-S

4.33 for gas...that's cheap

black label

^^^
93 octane too!

S14 n Tsx

Congrats. You officially joined the 500M club.

nokiaman

Nice car!

achenator

the picture on the side of the road looks like you ran out of gas LOL.

RaviNJCLs

iTrader: (4)

I am also a member of the 500 mile crowd. I got 32+ mpg on a trip to VA when I had my CL.

minkl81

iTrader: (2)

btw its first time seeing aspecs on a cl-s. looks good

gatrhumpy

iTrader: (1)

Awesome!

chill_dog

It is? 93 is about $4.20 here, give or take, and I paid $4.14 on Monday at Exxon (very surprised they were the cheapest as historically they have never been close to the cheapest).


black label - good job with stretching the tank...I don't have enough hills here to try it if I wanted to. The car looks great, too.

SSMTL01

I'm going to give this a shot in the s2k- just filled up last night and have only driven 15 miles on this tank.

I will continue to accelerate like a bat out of hell, use the AC, etc. Will post the results when I'm on empty!

majin ssj eric

Yeah, gas here is around $4.15/gal for 93 octane....

Loseit

iTrader: (1)

that is excellent mileage!!

FiveLiterCheater

That is a sharp looking CL! Wow...

sho_nuff1997

iTrader: (2)

awesome. i do this this with my TL, as well. i don't have as many hills as you, but i coast to every stoplight and down every possible incline. i average about 29 mpg on a 70 mile round trip commute. i get about 450 miles per tank. one day i will get to the 500 mark.

SSMTL01

Do you drive spiritedly the rest of the time?

sho_nuff1997

iTrader: (2)

yes, entering the freeway or accelerating from lights i hit vtec.

FutureBagdA4

Gas is around $4.85 here

Rock2534

That is good mileage, do you hit a lot of hills? If so thats good on the way down, but you still have to go up on the opposite direction. Looks like you basically ran the tank dry too, nice. I could get in the 400's in my CL but there was too much flat driving to really take advantage of hills. Makes me miss my CL.

FiveLiterCheater

Ouch...

black label

That tank had at least 40 miles left in it!! It only took 15.7 gallons so I had over 1 gallon left but at 510 miles I freaked myself out. I am the king of running the tank nearly dry.

There are a few hills along the route, for the most part it's either up or down without too many flat spots.

Thanks for the compliments on my ride those A specs were pretty rough when I got them ($200) so I had them refinished and darkened up to an anthracite finish ($300). At this ride height I have no rub in the rear if I wanted to go lower I'd have to run 225's instead of 235's but I always felt the car could use the grip of the extra rubber.

MarbleGT

I loved my CL for its outstanding roadtrip mileage!


As for now, I can go right under 400 miles with a 12gal tank.

TS_eXpeed

I think I will on this tank. Already have 300 on it, and the MID estimate I'll get another 230 with my current MPG

GreenMonster

That's great... Since I've got to go thru stop and go traffic every day, I can only get about 26mpg or so w/ my 6spd... (doing 60, doing 80 I only get 22-23mpg)...

How fast are you going when you're not coasting ?? Cruise control ??

BTW, There were 3 SMR CL's. 2 6spds in the same color combo as your's, at the Fuddruckers meet last sunday... One of 'em has a-specs too... That wasn't you, was it ??

GreenMonster

It's cheaper down here in Southeastern MA. I paid 4.17 for 93 yesterday...

black label

^^^
I was at work.

That was Nightpoison we used to work together, he's around here somewhere starting threads and getting yelled at for not searching.

I talked him into buying that thing after the last guy I talked into buying it sold it to dumped the payment on his brother. I never actually got paid for selling that one 2x, I just wanted people to own it so I pushed then in the right direction.

I hate cars

Good job. My record is 528 miles but that was 95% freeway driving. I couldn't imagine that with mixed city driving.

black label

I run between 65 and 80 on I495, whatever traffic will allow really. I don't want to be a road hazard and block the flow of traffic. On Rt3, the limit is 55 and they enforce it heavily so anywhere between 55 and 70, again whatever the traffic is doing.

I can coast at higher speeds when there is heavy traffic flow. If you have a car 40 yards in front of you it seems to eliminate enough aero drag to allow you to coast at 65/70mph for a decent distance as long as you have a little down hill grade. With out that draft you lose speed quickly at those speeds.

I haven't used Cruise Control or adjusted my tire pressures up.

It's actually quite a relaxing experience. You realize that the guy you normally followed much closer to is still at the traffic light at the end of the street when you arrive. It doesn't take me much longer to make the trip than when I would cruise at 80 mph the whole way on the highway.

Luca1014

black label, I think we've met before. Do you work at Acura of Peabody? I've only seen two red 6spd CLs with Aspec wheels around the Boston area and I've met the owners of both of them.

phee

iTrader: (5)

been doing this for a while. wouldve posted but i didnt want to get flamed for "nto being able to afford my car"

black label

I used to work at Acura of Peabody, I moved up to our Porsche store in NH, hence my extra long commute.

I'm the guy with the blond hair. The other one with the Aspec wheels would have belonged to Derek (shaved head) or Mikey (dark hair/stretched ear lobes).

Did you buy a car from me or did we just shoot the shit about cars?

Luca1014

No, I'm Eric's cousin. Yea I know Derek, I sold him my old set of XS headers awhile back. We've met before.

Nightpoison

Damn nice job Sean. I wish I could run it to 500. My new commute won't allow to much coasting. Seeing how I'm stuck in bumper to bumper.

black label

Nice to see you finally got a job


















you damn hippie

neuronbob

That is a NICE CL, mileage or no.

Thanks for posting your experiment.

black label

The pic of the CL that Green Monster posted is Derek's old car. So that means your old XS headers are on it.

My moonroof visor came off his car when Mike picked it up and Dereks the guy who arranged the repair of my Aspecs.

You have the white CL right?

Luca1014

Its a silver CL.

SSMTL01

Ok finished off my expiremental tank this weekend.. The results? I got 2 more MPG combined Guess the s2k is pretty efficient when not in vtec, and I dont have any mile long coast points

neuronbob

I bolded the operative words. You got a couple of high rpm romps in, didn't you?

black label

I think what yeilded most of my results is that I'm rarely on the gas for more than 45sec- 1min on the back road half of my route and that's just to boost me up the hill.

I actually think I get better mileage on the back roads than the highway at this point. Vtec is still being used, I just don't feel the need to catch up to the traffic anymore. I don't think I'll ever be able to get on a highway in any Honda product without redlining 2nd gear

BTW I got 500.1 out of the last tank so that's 500+ 2X in a row or 1010.2 miles on 2 tanks