Festiva 60Mpg Challenge!!

[Darlo]

Well even the extra weight of your GF will affect the mpg! To do it right, you will need to go at least 200-300 miles, without any extra weight.

[jesteratc]

Ok Guys heres my findings for the night. It was a nice night out. 80 deg, no wind. Great for testing.

My girlfriend and i left around 7:00 to try and miss as much traffic as possible.

We got to the gas station, at the #7 pump, and i put it on full autofill.

as you can see i only get the best. lol 87 Oct, apparently costs $2.599 a gallon. (I rarely get gas anymore, so i never notice when theres gas spikes in the price.)

Filled her up, i though it would take more but oh well.

3.921 gallons at a cost of $10.19
Took a pic of the dash as soon as i filled up.

Mileage reading as you can see is (072038.65)

Ok, here we go. Fired her up, and used the clutch with no gas to craw out of the station, then proceded to hit ever freakin light till the highway. (4 lights) in total.

Got up to highway speed (50mph) SLOWLY probably took me a half a mile to get there.


I tried to keep my foot there as much as possible, but honestly its a very hilly area. Maybe 1 mile of flat road, then a half mile uphill grade, then downhill. So speedometer was always between 45, and 55 it never touched either during the highway run.

Also, didnt use much hypermiling techniques. As in, i didnt shut the engine off, or coast much at all, the only time i coasted was when i knew i would get stuck at a traffic light. On the highway my foot was using gas the whole way.

The trip back felt quicker than the trip out, but i guess it usually does.

Crawled back into the gas station parking lot, back to the #7 pump and held my breath.



.622 Gallons

Sucked tho, because it clicked at .580, and stopped pumping at .622 But for all purposes ill say it did the same thing when i filled up, so it brakes even. I just saw that .580 and got excited cause it was what i was hoping for.

A quick look at the dash and


(072075.45) Miles

Ok, some quick maths

2075.45 - 2038.65 = 36.8 miles total.

36.8 miles divided by .622 = !!!!


59.164 MPG

WOO A Personal Best.


59.164 mpg at 50mph. Ill take it! :happy2:

I plan to do another test exactly the same way, but at 60mph. Just to see any difference.

I now expect everyone to criticize the way i did my test but im happy with the results anyway.

I got new tires a year ago, and havent checked the tire pressure. Ill let you know today what it is if i can find my gauge.

Thanks everyone.

[TominMO]

So apparently you did fill the tank to the brim both times? If so, at least that part is valid. But with speed varying from 45 - 55, and with such a short distance traveled, not checking tire pressure, and with a passenger--basically meaningless. Do a serious test.

[jesteratc]

I knew i had a flame suit somewhere lol. :violent3:

Realistically the highway section of my journey was within 48mph to 52mph, sometimes those hills sneak up on you, and i didnt want the car bogging down, so id give it to much gas and vise versa.
I just dont see when i would have the time do drive 400 miles at 50mph. Since i typically drive 80-85mph on the highway with the festiva.

[bhazard]

Dude seriously do it for at least 150 miles, I bet it wont be that high.

[jesteratc]

i dont think it would be that high either Hmm...150 miles. 3 hrs of driving. Not sure if want.

Ill probably just have to wait till i have a road trip to take. Do a real driving test then.

[eurotiva]

i dont think it would be that high either Hmm...150 miles. 3 hrs of driving. Not sure if want.

Ill probably just have to wait till i have a road trip to take. Do a real driving test then.

Drive to FM4.

[festyxfi]

I commend your efforts here and encourage you to keep trying (it makes driving fun again) but....

...as others have said, you have to drive farther and longer to get a proper reading.

This is in no way to discourage, but here's my personal MPG records:

Carbed Festiva: 50MPG at a constant 50MPH for hundreds of miles (Summer) Tires 44PSI, no back seat or panels, etc, etc...

EFI Festiva: 53MPG at 55MPH over hundreds of miles, same general set up

Geo Metro XFi: 67MPG at 45-50MPH over hundreds of miles (making other drivers angry) or 55+MPG at 55MPH and only getting mean-mugged while passed.

IMHO: It will take ALOT of mods and Techiques to pull 60MPG from any festy, let alone a slightly thirstier carbed model.

Good luck eh! I love max-MPG stuff

FX

[eurotiva]

I get 30mpg hypermiling

[htchbck]

Best mileage I ever got in a festiva was 46.7MPG on a 190mile drive when my B6 swap was fresh (well the top end was anyway). And I wasn't even trying for it. Mostly winding country roads, not too hilly, but staying right around 55MPH because of the curves. 70 on the highway usually gave me around 40MPG. With a freshly rebuilt B3 I think 60 is possible, but you'd have to be trying hard and it would need to be an EFI probably. In comparison my BP car averaged around 39MPG overall on a 1600 mile road trip, mostly highway around 75MPH, and about one full tank around town in Cleveland, OH. And that was with me and my roommate and a trunkfull of camping gear! I broke 40 several times in the BP car, when I wasn't flogging it, but it was hard not to rev it to 7k just to hear it scream .

I say go for it, I'm sure it can be done, but I have to agree with others that one 40 mile loop isn't going to give you very consistent/useable results. Either a long road trip, or an average of that 40 mile loop over several trips (read: many many trips) is necessary to help remove some of the margin of error due to so many variables. Thats why I always fill my tank and run it down to about a 1/4 then fill it up again on any of my cars, just so I have a couple of hundred miles to go by when taking the average MPG. Helps you catch things early if suddenly the MPG drops significantly. Can't do that with short hops though, since you might go back tomorrow and drive the same loop but get an air pocket in your tank thats displaces about a pint of gas, and suddenly you fill up with only "1/2 gallon" of gas, and your mileage would be over 70!... there's a lot of error that can occur very easily with such a small sample size.

And thats about as close as I feel like getting to sounding like a stats professor for today...

[drddan]

I got 46 one time coming back from a hunting trip from Rolla area to St. Louis.
That was with all my gear and stock tires, 135 miles. I dont know what I get now, the 14 inch tires have my speedo off, and I dont feel like doing the math.

[blkfordsedan]

Just a couple suggestions:

*For best MPG, don't use E10 or any fuel with Ethanol
*Let the car slow down & speed up as required when going up & down
hills. A steady foot is key, especially carbed.
*If EFI, best MPG will be at hotter ambient temperatures
*Tall of tires will decrease cruise RPM, but can also hurt MPG. I gained
2-3 MPG going from 155/80R12's to shorter 175/50R13's.

My '93 is an EFI/5speed and I get consistent 47 to 48.8 MPG with almost every tank. That's even with so much blow-by that I lose 1/2Qt of oil every 100 miles. I drive 500 to 700 miles per week (85% highway, 15% town). My typical drive is 50 miles one way. I keep the tach at about 2600rpm on the level and let it change speed as required going up & down hills. Best I ever got was 49.3. I'm sure if I would cruise, uninterrupted, at 2600rpm on the interstate for several hundred miles, I could break into the low 50's.

[stevewl1164]

How on earth could you DOUBLE her gas mileage in the Fit? I find it hard to believe she did that bad. Funny thing is..women I spoke with about gas mileage while at the gas pump revealed interesting things. Honda Fit ladies got 28 mpg. Aveo ladies got 26 mpg. Corolla...yeah the new big ones got 38 mpg and new Civics got 30 plus. I averaged 42 in my Festiva in mixed driving. I get 30 in my automatic Cavalier. My 93 Metro three cylinder five speed got 50 mpg average and 63 on the interstate. The Metro never went over 60 though. It did have air and I used it all the time. I remember driving it to empty and filling it for $8.00!

[Darlo]

I get 47.5 average in mine, but as high as 50+.........

Its all about how you drive. Dont speed!

[IdealSociety]

I think i peaked at 52mpg in my stocker. 25mpg in my BP festiva (driven like a madman) and 36mpg in my BP powered EGT driven mostly highway miles.

The EGT used to only get like 28mpg, but then i pulled the ac/power steering off and it gained like 10mpg.