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Decided to take my Festy out for a MPG run. Here are the details:
Environmental conditions: sunny, temp in mid-70s, 85% humidity, slight breeze at most, near sea level (St. Louis).
Vehicle conditions: 91 L 5-speed, stock except 13" front tires. Two mirrors; tires 155-80x13 on front and 155-80x12 on rear, all inflated to 35 PSI cold. No A/C. Rear seat, full-size spare, 15 or so lbs of stuff in the trunk. I deliberately wanted to keep it "normal", i.e. not unusually light or aerodynamic, so the results would be a good baseline for everyone. I weigh 180 lbs.
Driving conditions: did a big loop around St. Louis, totaling 82 miles. This will cancel out the slight breeze. Drove at 55 MPH as much as possible, not much more or less. Used no electrical accessories like heater or radio. I corrected for the odometer error, which was 1.7% low with these front tires. This was measuring the odometer against the mileage markers for 20 miles. The markers were every .2 miles, so I consider them sufficiently accurate.
Result: 51 MPG. Removing the rear seat, spare tire, and stuff in the trunk (about 80 lbs total), and pulling the right mirror might have helped a little, but I suspect it would amount to no more than 1 MPG better. Higher elevation will also give better readings, due to lower air density. Less air to push through, and less gas used since the FI tries to keep a balance between air and fuel.
Environmental conditions: sunny, temp in mid-70s, 85% humidity, slight breeze at most, near sea level (St. Louis).
Vehicle conditions: 91 L 5-speed, stock except 13" front tires. Two mirrors; tires 155-80x13 on front and 155-80x12 on rear, all inflated to 35 PSI cold. No A/C. Rear seat, full-size spare, 15 or so lbs of stuff in the trunk. I deliberately wanted to keep it "normal", i.e. not unusually light or aerodynamic, so the results would be a good baseline for everyone. I weigh 180 lbs.
Driving conditions: did a big loop around St. Louis, totaling 82 miles. This will cancel out the slight breeze. Drove at 55 MPH as much as possible, not much more or less. Used no electrical accessories like heater or radio. I corrected for the odometer error, which was 1.7% low with these front tires. This was measuring the odometer against the mileage markers for 20 miles. The markers were every .2 miles, so I consider them sufficiently accurate.
Result: 51 MPG. Removing the rear seat, spare tire, and stuff in the trunk (about 80 lbs total), and pulling the right mirror might have helped a little, but I suspect it would amount to no more than 1 MPG better. Higher elevation will also give better readings, due to lower air density. Less air to push through, and less gas used since the FI tries to keep a balance between air and fuel.
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