Restarting the FE challenge?
 

The fuel economy challenge has basically stalled, it seems.

Is anyone up for restarting the challenge? We would have assume all teams are disbanded, and see who wants to join up for the next round?. We should also discuss the options regarding length-of-cycle etc. In my opinion, the original shorter cycle was good because it kept everyone 'on the ball', whereas the new cycle was too long that it just fizzled out.

The downside of the short cycle was that some of the most fuel-concious team members were getting below the minimum fill, thereby being penalised.

Maybe one option is to reduce the minimum fill, but stipulate it has to be at the same pump at the same gas station, and has to be filled in the same way (ideally using a slow-fill at the end to reach a similar level). For what it is worth, if you get an optimisitic fill in round 1 of the challenge, that means you didn't put enough fuel in... when you next fill it will even out and you will get a lower MPG. Overall it would balance out.

So... Anyone up for a new FE challenge now that the summer is here? (we are going into the winter here in NZ but my FE keeps climbing anyway!)

Kiwi land! sure, I'll participate.

I'm in. Maybe we can get someone to donate prizes - get more interest? Possibly even find a site or two that will do external writeups and get gassavers.org some publicity?

OK.
I think we'd need someone to tally team results.
Anybody??

i'm in, too.

Sure, I'd also love to.

OH~!..I want to play kickball too!

As long as I get picked before the fat kid, I'm happy!

I should be getting around 60mpg this tank.. so I shouldn't be picked last for a team, right?

I had an idea the other day that such a challenge should be indexed to weight. Something like Mile-tons Per Gallon. So my Escort for instance at 2450 lbs getting 40 mpg would be getting 1.225 tons x 40 mpg = 49 MTPG. Similarly, a 3 ton pickup getting 13 mpg would be getting 39 MTPG.

Such a system could make it viable for all comers to compete, regardless of vehicle type or weight. Aerodynamic cars will likely still have the advantage, but a 3 ton pickup turning in 20 MPG on the highway would be netting 60 MTPG, and that's actually pretty close to or possibly even exceeding the efficiency of much smaller vehicles.

I'm in. If someone can get me the spreadsheets that "The Commish" used, I'd be glad to tally up numbers too.