The tanks in both my cars were empty Monday morning just in time for the spike in gas prices.

The Charger normally gets 89 octane as recommended by Dodge. This week it got a tank full of 87 as everything else was unavailable. I don't bother to calculate MPG on the Dodge. The number would be below 20 and no one needs to know that.

The Miata is fine with 87 octane and that is what it got as well. The calculations on the Miata this time yielded 29.3 MPG.

Useless Fact o' the Day

Yesterday's fill up of the Miata yields results of 28 MPG. Pretty good considering not a single mile was on the interstate.

According to some random site on the 'net, Mazda spec'ed the car at 21/27 MPG. Another site listed it at 22/28.

What kind of mileage are you getting?

Filled up the Miata today. 28.5 MPG for the previous tank.

Sunday Afternoon Maintenance

This afternoon, in the extreme heat of the afternoon sun, I washed the Miata. (I had two helpers so it took a little longer than normal.)

While washing the car, I found a bunch of tar along the lower half of the car, especially on the drivers side. I happened to have some tar and bug remover so I made a pass at the tar. Unfortunately it leaves a residue so the car is ready for another bath. It will have to wait.

In additional to the wash, I cleaned the windows and applied rain-x.

Next was a quick 8 mile drive to drive to fill up the tank. Technically it should only be about a mile, but I often get side tracked by curvy roads when driving the Miata on a Sunday afternoon.

The fill up proffered a mileage rating of 29.5 per gallon. Sweet. Not as good as my hypermiling experiment but not bad for my lead foot.

Odometer: Just over 106,900, which is what was on the clock when I finished the clutch job.

Zoom Zoom Zoom

Hypermiling

I recently read two articles on hypermiling. One of the articles described how some guys were able to get more than 100 MPG out of a stock Prius. Hypermilers use driving techniques to exceed the estimated fuel efficiency of their vehicles. It sounded interested so I thought I would give it a try.

I decided to adopt a single technique for one tank of gas. One the next fill up I checked my mileage and started the experiment. Crunching the numbers 305.0 miles / 10.9 gallons resulted in approximately 28.0 MPG during normal driving. Not bad when you consider I tend to have a lot of fun while driving the Miata. Maybe, maybe too much fun.

The driving technique I applied is called pulse and glide. Essentially you accelerate up to some speed and then shift into neutral and coast for a while. Some folks kill the engine while coasting. I did not. After using this technique for a while, you begin to realize how often being in gear is actually holding the car back. You seem to get a little bit of free speed every time you shift out of gear. You can also use the hills for a little free energy whenever possible.

After two weeks and 324 .4 miles I filled the car up with 9.86 gallons of gas. This time the tank averaged 32.9 MPG, an increase of 4.9 MPG or 17.5%. Not bad.

Pulse and glide is easy on the open road with a manual gear box. I don't think I would try this with an automatic transmission though. Will I drive this way all the time? No. Occasionally? Certainly.