Hi everyone, I've been lurking around for more than half a year but only now did I decide to register. I figured it was the right thing to do since I've learned so much from the great resources here.
I'm a car enthusiast from Portugal, just across the Atlantic.
I know this is an American site, but I trust you'll treat me just as well any other member.
We have some expensive gas around here. Currently, it's 1.33?‚? per liter of 95 octane gas. At current rates, that's $7.29 per US gallon for you right there. 98++ octane premium fuels go up to almost 1.5?‚? per liter. Diesel fuel is a little cheaper, so diesel powered cars have become very popular these past few years, much to my discontent. I'd rather live without the smoke and noise, thank you very much.
I like performance (especially handling) as much as I do protecting the environment and little money that I have, so I am currently running a Honda Civic, chassis code EK3, which I believe strikes a good balance between these two factors. That's a medium sized car according to our standards.
It's got a 1.5 liter 115hp 16v SOHC VTEC-E engine, capable of both closing an intake valve per cylinder (effectively running on 12 valves) and lean burn at low load conditions. The 12 valve mode operation is indicated by a green
ECONO light on the instrument panel, as seen on the second picture below.
In a way, this car is a spiritual successor to the well-liked American VX which never arrived on our shores, even if less radical in its approach to FE. The gearbox ratios are really tall (again, the second picture), but not as tall as the ones found on VXs.
I have recorded all fill-ups since buying the car two years ago on this spritmonitor.de website. Links on my signature. On the face of it, it doesn't look all that great, does it? Well, if you consider that I live in a very mountainous region with a lot of steep gradients, that this is the accumulated FE for 2 years and that I do full throttle mountain runs on occasion, it does not sound all that bad.
Driving technique is based on conserving momentum through corners, accelerating and decelerating smoothly and not going over 120Km/h (75mph) which equates to 3000rpm in 5th, the cutoff for the
ECONO mode, very often. Tires (Goodyear F1) and suspension (Koni + Eibach) were chosen for performance. Tires are kept at 40psi front/38psi back, which is really as far as I would want to go on the pothole-lined things we call roads in this country. Weight-reduction measures are limited to not carrying around a spare, jack and tools and keeping the car clean.
I learned about the Scangauge II from this site, and would like to get one eventually, but the mpg readings (in opposition to l/100Km) and uncertainty of it working on my lean burn car are two throw-offs.
So I guess this is it. I'm here to learn and share information that might be of interest to you. See you around!
Hello from across the pond!
Linear Mode
