Hi um, I am brand new to hypermilling.
 

Hi. I am a young person, it will probably show. I know a little bit about cars. I have a 1996 volvo 960 wagon. It gets about 18-22 mpg pending my habits. I like to drive it as fast as it will go. But I simply cannot afford to pay the gas my volvo consumes while I race it. It is a HEAVY car. I have never been caught racing, and I have lost one race out of 30. Everyone is different, and I expect to be treated somewhat hostile for a while here because of my racing addiction, yes I say addiction. I want to learn how to stretch my gas as far as it will go, I don't care how. I am mechanicly inclined, not linguisticly. I don't know a whole lot about cars, but I am very easy to teach.

True Fact: When I learned that there was an entire online community dedicated to gas savings, I almost cried. Gas is a real problem now, and it's about time someone did something about it. And I salute every single one of you.

first things first, buy a more fuel efficient car. something like a civic or a corolla. im assuming that your still in high school since you said that your young?

stop street racing, it can kill someone and is very dangerous. ive been there and done that, its not a smart thing to do. if you like to race, take it to a track. I had a friend in high school who got caught racing, and it took alot of money for that mistake

I am switching from a wagon to a sedan, and upping the year one. it gets better FE(by up to 10 miles per gallon CITY alone.).

On the matter of street racing: I am sorry, but I won't be stopping any time soon. I am very carefull while doing it, and avoid traffic at all costs.

I need to know the methods of increasing mph. Both in driving technique and in mods. Under the hood mods are not best for me, but will be looked into as well as I can. I am looking for things like aerodynamic mods and driving techniques. Volvos don't like turning off the engine while coasting to a stop. It's annoying to change from drive to park*start car* and back to drive again.

When I first started building hot rods, back in the 60's an old rodder told me that speed costs, and then asked me how fast I wanted to go..

I have to ask.. Just exactly what the *hell* are you racing against that you win with a 960 wagon with an automatic?

Two quick points: happily, the aerodynamic mods will speed up your racing some, at least on top end.

And, with an automatic the best way to get high mileage is probably pretend you have a raw egg between your foot and the gas pedal and the brake pedal and drive in such a manner that you will not break the egg.

Street racing is nothing new...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcDtobKr-_M

Keep reading the forum to find your driving and aero ideas.

As for having to shift to Park to restart, you can't start in Neutral? You probably can, but unless your car is rated for flat-towing, EOC is a bad idea. Look in the manual to see if it says you can tow your car with all four wheels down, if it says you can then you can try some EOC.

Street racing is dangerous, illegal, and in some cases immoral, and you shouldn't do it. This is not a safety or law forum, so let's talk about FE. When you race you destroy your MPG calculations. Racing should be a separate cost/measurement for you, so fill up before and after any event, or if you want an empty tank to keep your weight low, don't expect to figure your MPG after racing. Maybe a ScanGauge would be a good investment for you.

Try switching to track racing. Bump up your "bracket" by doing so. This WILL help you save on gas. If you lose one in 30 then go up a skill level. This will likely result in fewer races but better competition, thus saving gas. Also safer. Note I didn't say switch because street is unsafe (although it is) - you asked how - that is one of the HOW ways - switch to track racing.

Sell the Volvo and get a Corolla, Acura, whatever. Many more opportunities there for specific competition, and they get better mileage.

You, my friend, need a stock Civic VX. The car was practically designed for turning the motor off and coasting. They look sporty, they have a VTEC-E engine, they have stylish, light alloy wheels, and the worse you can do if you're driving like a maniac is get in the mid 30s for mileage, no matter how you drive (assuming you leave it stock). And the best you can do is the mid 60s.

I don't pretend it's anything new. And the bulk of my races were won not because my car was any better, but because my opponents weren't willing to push their cars faster. I am willing to wring out every last bit of speed, as they start getting sketchy around 120(I say it's psychological). But hell, as long as the money showed I didn't give a **** WHY I won.

Take out the passenger seats when you know you're not going to have riders. Don't fill the tank when you're going to be racing.
I'll skip giving the life saving advise,because I really don't like kids.

Well thanks so much, hope you get your SSI check soon. That lazy mailman, taking money from the government...

Anyways, I would just like to annouce over a 10% increase in FE from just changing my driving habits alone(and this is calculating my best mpg before, to current[it's over 20% at my worst])! I am simply amazed how much it really adds up! I must admit, when people were mentioning the MINOR gains from all the little things they do, I didn't believe it would cause THIS much of an impact!

Turning off my engine on stretches of road over a quarter mile to coast to a stoplight, and gaining speed while going DOWN a hill then coasting. I have only been turning my car off occasionally, but I now know that this isn't just a minor savings, I am going to be saving anywhere from 150 to 300 bucks every single month by doing this. THANKS SO MUCH!

Btw current mpg is around 22. Alot better than what I was getting!

If you stay here a while, you mileage will continue to go up! I used to drive a turbocharged car, and got about 54mpg (US) doing short town-based journeys (up from 20MPG stock).

Aerodynamic modifications will help your economy and also top-end speed (and acceleration at higher speeds too). Engine-off coasting can resut in huge savings but you have to be very careful with the power steering and brakes that lose the vacuum after 2-3 uses with the engine off.

I once drove at 90mph on winding Scottish roads, and got about 40mpg (US), simply due to having a wideband lambda sensor, and being used to engine-off coasting (I was attending an emergency call! But I wasn't going to excees 90 in a 60 limit, so just did engine off coasting anyway!)

Right now I am looking at a few cars as I am getting sick of my own, and it just got vandalized.
Volvo 960 sedans
Pontiac Fieros
And looking into honda civics. Can't find a VX for the life of me though. Checked ebay and autotrader. Maybe I am misunderstanding what a civic vx is. Never raced one!

A Honda Civic of just about any sort would work for you, likely a 1992-2000 model. The VX is the "high MPG" model, basically, although many people swap in a more powerful motor for street racing. Look for a Honda Civic "station wagon" or hatchback. They can often be found for less than $2000 if you look hard, even less if you want to do body work. The VX is typically much more expensive and hard to find in great shape.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:H...c-DX-hatch.jpg

These vehicles are GREAT on gas and there are many racing events (legal even) for you to enjoy.

You may very well find that you enjoy saving gas so much you may eventually switch from racing to saving gas or hypermiling!

Pontiac Fieros? Good luck finding those. They're cool and I wouldn't mind having one, but they may not be practical for you for these reasons:
- It will attract WAY more attention than your Volvo, assuming equivalent visible modifications. This means more attention from cops, and it's easier to identify you another day when the cop saw you but didn't catch you, and probably more vandalism
- It will be old, since they haven't been made in so long
- Insurance may cost a LOT, I know it used to (and supposedly that's why they stopped making them)
- Old technology means bad FE and performance
- They are in very short supply; besides the original short supply and the people who want Fieros, they are very commonly used with kits for making imitations of exotic sports cars

Civics are hard to find and priced high because they are so popular. They retain lots of resale value which is bad for used car buyers.

Your idea of getting another Volvo is probably the best option for buying another car. If you don't mind my asking, to what extent was your current car vandalized, and why?

Ill upload pics asap, probably when I wake up today. I really don't know why honestly, I havn't raced anyone up here(I moved recently) and I don't know more than 10 people here and we are all on good terms!

Let's see...windshield is cracked(thank god it's still legal) left quarter piece and turn signal assembly is screwed up, needs to be bent out somewhat nice in the meantime and assembly reinserted... the hood is slightly off(this is just mostly a PITA situation) and my back left taillight is bashed in. looks like a bat or a medium weight sledge. I have no idea about the windshield crack though...maybe someone tried to punch it? although I must give kudos to them, I once had to break into my own car and that fu(ker just WOULDN't break! Even with a metal fencing post! Anyway, it's not BAD BAD but I was an idiot and skimped out on my coverage, plus, it happened in the night so no chance on getting the bastard(s) that did it...

Damn, that stinks!

One possible guess as to who might want to mess with your car: A local who is angry that some kid moved in and has been driving too fast on his street, and is too dumb to call the cops and have enforcement increased. That's if you're driving too fast for someone else's preference, even though you think it's a safe/legal/comfortable speed.

I normally drive on the boarders between jurisdictions as often as possible, they are less patrolled.