560 mile road trip coming up, predict my range
 

560 mile road trip one way tommorow night.

I'm taking my Regal and last time I did the trip my best run was 511 miles on one tank good for 33 miles per gallon.

Last time I did the trip I averaged about 65 mph 90% of the trip, I did a few WOT runs, I have the grapevine to deal with which killed mileage going up but going down I just coast down the whole time.

My goal is to not get tempted and not do any WOT runs and try to stay at 60 MPH most of the way there. Its hard to stay focused especially that long but its a nice challenge to try to get there with no gas stop. Think I can do it?

I think the biggest challenge will be the weather. Its still November but last December when I did this trip I was averaging a cool 31 MPG according to my cars computer. I wasnt paying attention for a good 15 minutes going up and my car was on Cruise control, all of a sudden I looked down and my MPG was 24! I didnt realise my car was in boost and the weather had hit 25 degrees.

When I did my 511 mile run it was the beginning of summer and the coldest the vine got was 50 degrees.

Im prepared this time, no cruise try to stay off boost once I hit the vine.

So if I stick to my plan, 60 the whole way and once I hit the vine stay off boost and hopefully not use the heater much how far do you guys think I can make it on 1 tank?

The only change to my car from the last time is ported exhaust manifolds and lowered suspension.

I will post the results when I get back.

I meant 449, I wish I can go 4449 on one tank :p

I think the cold weather will get you. Where are you located , I've forgoten?

If you fill up / start with a warmed engine, do any climbing slower keep the LOD minimized, coast when you can and stay under 60 MPH, I'm thinking that you'll do the full trip on a tank.

Carrying a small jerry can in case you don't? :D

I voted for "You will make it with no gas stop" and don't make a liar out of me!

Fixed it for you.

And what is the prize for the closest guess, lol.

I forgot who it was that had a thread like this last time, but it was fun!

Oh, and I did get my Prize as promised. :thumbup: :D

Exactly, only come back here if you make it!!! :D

When I'm on the graphvine, I throw it in neutral and just coast down with only gravity pulling me to over 85mph (that's the max speed on my speedo on my 92 Celica GT). I would not hit my brakes unless I had to due to safety. Once i hit the base of the grapevine I pray I don't get pulled over and continue to coast until I hit 55mph :). I think I recoup the cost of the resourced needed to get me up the grapevine, but in reality I'm sure I
expended more energy to go the distance than if I was on flatland.

BTW, my celica would get 19-21mpg. For a car that has 92 or 96HP, it sure didn't get good mileage. My VX seems to have twice the power (in reality it puts out about the same, but the vx has quite a bit more top end than my celica) and 2.5 times the FE!

You should take the roller skate.

Im in California. Right now its about 50-60 degrees at night and the grapevine is under 40. Im taking off at around 10 tonight.

I'll try to do 55 for as long as I can but thats so boring! Whats a Jerry can? Extra gas? My car has 2 gas warning lights. The first is a light and theres still 5 gallons when the light comes on (Since Buick is for old people I guess they want to warn them early) the second warning the driver information center flashes "low range" and if In driving slow theres still a good 30-40 miles of range left in there ( again I guess its to warn the target market of this car :rolleyes: ) I havent ran out of gas yet.


Thats why I made this poll before I leave. Its a long trip and might as well make a game of it to make it interesting and save a few dollars. :)

How about the person who's closest at guessing actual miles gets a gasavers.org sticker?

When I come back I'll make another topic, ill let you guys guess the actual number and the closest gets a sticker.

I dont put it in nuetral cause I read somewhere that coasting in N in a automatic is bad. But since I do this trip late at night and no one else is really around I do just let it coast and hit 90 ish and at the end I let it coast till its at 60-65 and turn on cruise. That helps restore some of the mileage I lost from going up.

Your Celica reminds me of the Neon I had. Small engine, Econo box but the Mileage sucked. I had a Suzuki Esteem and that thing got 35+ no matter how fast you drove it.

I dont trust taking it just yet. Once I change the plugs, the wires, the distributor cap pcv etc I'll have more confidence in it and I'll take that next.