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Old 05-25-2013, 10:28 AM
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Username1 Username1 is offline
Not sure how I got here.
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Orange County NY
Posts: 3,584
Many things account for large engine fuel economy differences. Gearing: is the engine in the sweet-spot of energy output at 60mph? Shape: as speed increases so does drag, Popular science use to publish mph for different speeds of the cars they tested. Lots of 70's cars topped out at 45mph as for peak mpg.

GM has always done better than Fords on highway mpg for their rear wheel drive vehicles. I suspect they have higher gear ratios for final drive. The engine turns slower at 55, but the taller gears means it has to work much harder to get there. So local driving forces down local mpg a lot.

Mostly, mpg is effected by changing speed of the vehicle. I have ridden with many people who think they are good drivers and can't understand why they get poor mpg's. I find that they can't regulate the speed of their cars well, and don't rely on the cruise control, or they un-knowingly decide to race every car that comes up behind them, or next to them.

There were however a few times in history where some large American cars got better mpg than you might have thought. We had a 1979 Mercury (Ford LTD 302V8) wagon with VV carb that got 26 highway really loaded. My Dakota 3.9l Spit injection gets 26 highway 17 city, But out 87 LTD wagon with port injection same configuration, and transmission would not get much more than 21 highway. Same driving conditions/person driving.

In Sandy's case..... I imagine Sandy nailed a wrap around all wood porch to the thing, with maybe a rocking chair or two by the doors, a large flag pole there somewhere... Inside a couch, 25" floor model console tv with remote, Magnavox of course.... A cast iron coal burning stove full height 8" double insulated smoke stack, pull out fully electric wrap around sun awning, custom mud dually rear end, and a 45,000 watt 4 cylinder diesel 3 phase surplus army generator bolted to the roof. And towing behind a 12,000 lb 6 wheel all day fully loaded tail gating supreme 3 steer smoker-barb-Q Auto rotisserie with fold out retail counter, cash registers, and pop up umbrella array so no sale is lost in bad weather....

Dam Sandy! You should be happy with 8 mpg...... ; )

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