Observing other drivers
 

You know what I find entertaining? The ya-hoos in their gigantic 5 mpg trucks who see a red light that everyone is slowing down or stopping for. These freaky mammoths race ahead of the slowing traffic only to slam on the brakes. So getting ahead of a car or two apparently is worth a gallon or two of gas! lol

I was filling up yesterday next to a bohemoth of a vehicle where a man was filling up. He saw me with my receipt and calculator as I was computing gas mileage. He told me that he doesn't even bother anymore since his gas mileage sucks. He asked what my mpg was so I told him. He looked shocked. I told him that changing driving technique helped a lot so far and also mentioned this site (because you guys rock with the tips I get here). Oooh perhaps another gassavers recruit. :D

There are times I race around wasting gas. I like the V8 and the D is quicker than quite a few smaller vehicles out there. It might not have the horsepower to win a long race but since the flash stall on my torque converter puts the engine where it is making about 85% of peak torque I can launch way better than any other car I've owned. Those first gear downshifts from overdrive cruising at 35 sound and feel freaggin' great too. Oddly enough. I get 12.6 when driving nice a whole tank and I get 12.6 driving like a dick. So, I just drive like I feel like now. The last tank though, I can't explain that one.

You know what I've noticed driving around lately. There isn't any such thing as a normal Prius driver. They either go incredibly slow and impede traffic or they haul *** everywhere cutting people off and taking neighborhood streets to avoid lights.

gas isnt enough expansive

Twice this week, I have been "blown around" after a red light. (Yes, I tend to pull away slowly, but not so slowly that it is obnoxious) Both times it was on a 2-lane road where nobody was in the other lane, but each time they had to pull back into the right lane to take an onramp.

Funny thing is that each time, these bozos wind up in front of me instead of behind me, but are still only going as fast as I was/am. They gained about 3 seconds, but wasted a lot of gas in the process.

Of course maybe they just think my car is SOOOOO cool that they want to see it from the side & front instead of from behind. Actually maybe I'm on to something there...

-BC

Yep they win the "Moron of the Moment Award"

Kinda like the "Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award"

I coast past them at the light becasue "de be dummies witout a clue".

regards
gary

Personally, I'm very happy when people pass me (even if it's just before a light)...that means that they can't tailgate me.

The ones that get me an when I'm on a 2 lane doing 5 under the limit in right lane and left is open and the "yahoo's" can see they will catch up to me and they still wait till there almost tailgating me to change lanes.

You're lucky. Around here they tailgate and wait behind you for a minute before they realize there's a whole additional lane that they could use. I just can't understand why, if they can't stand going slow, they want to wait behind me. When I used to drive fast, I wouldn't slow for others, that just mean constant brake-gas-brake-gas...I went around them.

well said, and that could go for FAR more than just driving!

Yesterday I just had to race from traffic light to the next (untimed, red) just to be able to escape from the bus lane where I shouldn't normally be, but this was the only way to merge to the road I took (just after some traffic signs misguided me from the same road and I had to turn back and merge again... I love Budapest..). I'm pretty happy that Teresa (being a motorcycle with 50hp and <200kg) can accelerate better than most cars, even when I'm carefully using the highest possible gear :)

On the freeway I lately did a few pulses that are much faster than my usual 90 (at most 100) km/h (56-62mph) ones. On the previous tank I even did a few 130km/h (80mph) ones and still got a good tank - it seems that doing so before longer downhills makes the NICE-On time (=its fuel consumption) enough shorter on the same distance to (at least partly) make up for the extra taken by the longer, harder acceleration. And it's, I must admit, fun :)

On my last (albeit a short one, for I took Teresa to the mechanic for 40k maint yesterday) tank the max I did was ~120km/h (~75mph) and I stuck more to my usual 70-90s and I got my personal best (I picked a few more slopes to take with stopped engine, plus took a different route where I don't have to accelerate once and engine brake at the edge of the residential area so I can FAS through it - with good results).

edit: but what I wanted to say with it all - I'm still amazed amazing how much I can defy the common rule of driving at a steady speed to get much better results... it's just doing one thing differently as many of 'them'. Acceleration is not from the devil, it doesn't 'waste' energy, it's braking that must be avoided :D (I must admit it needs much anticipation in the city and I'm still far from having mastered it...)

I'm hoping to get into a bike again so I can have a fun little thing to ride around. This winter I may just build one. I've got my eye on a few engines but they are limited since space requirements are an issue. I've got a friend with some flathead V8s I've thought about using.

My other optional engine is a B16A series engine. It's really gonna just depend on what mood I'm in at the time the thing starts getting built, if it does.

Yup, Marvin gets wayyy better city mpg under somewhat "hard" acceleration, give him 2500 rpm and let the torque do the work, then lift off instantly at the speed limit, or soon enough to coast to next light or stop. It ain't the rate of acceleration so much as it's the time you hold it or the speed you go. I can get 23mpg city out of him if the traffic is co-operative (i.e. no long waits and not getting cut off every 5 seconds) driving in a fashion that might seem "hard" but granny drive him below 2000 rpm and he just wastes gas splashing tranny fluid around and gets 19 or 20.

Wile-E however is difficult, still got a bit of an intermittent dead/rough spot around 2000 rpm that makes things tricky.

I have been known to overtake and try to out drag people in the name of FE though and of preserving my vehicle... the situation for that is usually rolling country roads with an 80kph limit, and people that want to do 70... it's not that I'm impatient, it's just that Marvins TC lockup is bouncing on and off and I'm cooking the transmission and wasting gas at 70kph-ish. I need to drive nearer 80 with it fully locked up... or just loaf along at 60, but the revs are backed off so much I'm probably losing to TC slip, I believe lowest minimum lockup speed is his best steady state mpg point. In fact I think 300 miles of driving on vacation last year, in hilly country, with too much "slow" traffic is what finished his 200,000 mile transmission off.

Some tailgaters are just plain weird though. You'll move into the left lane because a turn is coming up... the guy coming up it will get right on your bumper, then you'll signal in plennnnty of time and he's still there and you think he must be turning too, maybe come to a stop and he's still there, and you turn, and see him set off and go straight... and you wonder why he didn't just go round you.

Lol! I've noticed that many times slow and steady "wins" the race. (Assuming there is a race to be had.) Many times the aggressive, weaving drivers have their front end so close to the car ahead of them that they can't see the big picture and wind up getting stuck behind some horrible traffic further ahead in the lane they are in.

Just getting the big picture so you can see what's going on ahead is huge.

I do love the visual regarding these drivers wanting to see your car from all sides! :D

'80s pop music discussion moved to: https://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=11519

Back to the topic, yesterday I was on an empty road where there was a long passing zone. A Jeep Cherokee flew up behind me and slowed, despite there being NO oncoming traffic. That was the perfect passing situation, just change lanes, zoom around me, and get back in the lane. Instead, the action was wait behind me until there was a short passing zone with traffic ahead and make a difficult pass in a slow vehicle...

He needed a little excitement in his life.

Yeah man , exactly like that. Gophers I dont mind so much , its the deer that do that stuff the aggrivates the crap out of me.