Read this interesting article regarding the revtec engine. Reported to have been independently tested to be 50% smaller, 50% lighter, and is cheaper to manufacture than a conventional engine of the same horsepower. They're talking about a toyota yaris getting 80mpg. I must be dreaming...

No, I'm sure it's quite real. The tradeoff is horsepower. Slow acceleration. Note that as you read the article you find that in order to achieve the maximum return they are describing you have to drive it in a non-agressive fashion, otherwise you only get a 30% improvement in fuel efficiency instead of 100%. In other words, drive like you normally do and the Yaris will go from 40 MPG to 52MPG. Still not bad.

Listen though, I'm telling you that if you can force yourself to accelerate slowly coming off of stop lights and such instead of just going for it, you'll see a big increase in your fuel economy without any new technology. It works, I've tried it. You get honked at more but it definitely works. Plus you get used to it. If you're not in a hurry it's no big deal and you can really improve your fuel economy for city driving. It's the stopping and starting that kills you. Maintaining a constant speed doesn't require much fuel at all.

Hanley

I'm with you Hanley.

I've gone from ~27mpg to >35 (dividing trip meter by gallons filled ) in my civic by
-reducing I75 speed from 80 (ok sometimes a tad more) to 68 (sometimes less),
-timing it so I don't come to complete stop at red lights as much as possible and
-brake as few times as possible, not sacrificing safety of course
-accelerating as easy as possible
-let my speed go down when I go uphill and I gently get it back when I go downhill
-use ac instead of windows down approach

I even got caught in that aweful 2 hr stop and go drive home old richmond road last friday (left office at 7 got home after 9) and my mpg for that tank was 34. I thought I'd done the math wrong!

Driving has really been a lot more peaceful experience too. No worry looking for po po, no worry changing lanes all the time, and just a general I'll get there when I get there approach.

Ohhhhh this talk is such a flashback to the public service announcements of the 1970's and early 80's

Dont forget to shut off the engine at long stops too!! I actually had a neighbor bend my ear for 15 minutes about the high cost of energy while she let her big SUV idle the whole time. I remember in some parts of Europe they shut off the engine at every stop light and that was when gas was cheap(relatively, about what we pay now).

I've been wondering about how much that really helps vs how much the "starting back up" uses. One fella on one of those ecomodding boards installed a kill switch on his dash so he could "stop" the engine but somehow still have power steering and brakes.. But I really wonder how much not idling really helps (esp after my 2 hr stop-n-go experience) If I could get another 5mpg or more I'd be all about that.

I think it depends on several things, including how long you're idling, how new your car is and what kind of condition it's in.

When a car is cold, it uses more gas and starting it can be somewhat fuel intensive. Modern cars, however, are computer controlled and almost never need the good ol' goose of the gas pedal to get them to start, especially once they're warmed up. Hence, in a modern computer controlled, fuel injected, electronically ignited car, it should make a fair amount of difference if you're able to actually cut out significant idle time. The Prius does this in order to increase efficiency. The kill/restart switch is attached to the gas pedal. It switches itself off when you come to a complete stop and restarts itself when you step on the gas. Pretty cool.

Hanley

I've gone from ~27mpg to >35 (dividing trip meter by gallons filled ) in my civic by
-reducing I75 speed from 80 (ok sometimes a tad more) to 68 (sometimes less),
-timing it so I don't come to complete stop at red lights as much as possible and
-brake as few times as possible, not sacrificing safety of course
-accelerating as easy as possible
-let my speed go down when I go uphill and I gently get it back when I go downhill
-use ac instead of windows down approach

It's called Hyper Mileing
www.hypermiling.com/
I've been doing it for years.
Also, a little while back here on the forum,
I saw someone (Hanley, perhaps?) mention
the terrorist organization, Exxon.
No paddler should ever buy their gas.
I haven't supported their evil cause for over 10 years now.
I'm a paddler. It's what I'm supposed to do.

Mark B

[www.motherjones.com]

One of the hypermilers mentioned in the story in the link is Dave Bassage who Dan, Cynthia, Ellen and I paddled the Cranberry with a few years ago.

Great article. I don't have an fcd but I was looking at these, anyone know of anything cheaper? Or better yet have a used one? If I can use this tool to squeeze out just 10% more (3mpg) then the investment will pay for itself after 42 fillups at $4/g. Then it's ~$200/yr in savings filling up once a week.

Very interesting. I started doing some of those things recently before I read this and my mileage improved from 16.8 to 20.3 and climbing (Highlander AWD 3L V6 230hp)... and I'm not driving that much slower. My most efficient speed seems to be 40-50mph where I get around 30mpg. That was a huge shock to me. I always assumed idling along ... like down the beach for instance would be great mileage... wrong. It sucks, like < 10mpg idling down the beach! Being able to put boats inside the vehicle most of the time I'm sure helps!

Wes