50mpg with del sol!

[sonyhome]

I'm real surprised and happy about this:

I went from San Francisco bay area (sea level) to tuolomne meadows (7000ft) this week-end, trunk full 2 people, and on some fillups I think I got close to 50mpg. All this with DFCO or neutral coasting on downhills.

I was not even driving slow!

I'm going to do my last fillup today and crunch the data.

EPA: 25/30/27

hypermiling rules

I've been soo disappointed with my A/T CRV mileage so far, it's nice for a change.

[civic94]

your del sol should be up there if its a 5 speed manual. i have a 94 civic coupe, and i gotten 48 mpg going 80mph on a road trip, with the super short EX transmission (2500rpm @ 60 mph, 3,600rpm @ 80 mph)

as for your crv, getting 24 mpg on that is pretty good, i had a friend that gotten 24 mpg max on his 06 crv AT, but thats with a 5 speed AT instead of a 4 speed AT like yours. that thing has the aero of a brick!

[sonyhome]

It's a D16 engine (93 Si Del Sol 5sp).

What shocked me is that we're talking driving up a mountain, fully loaded with camping + climbing gear + food. I was expecting 30 to 40 mpg. The aero of a del sol is also very bad (very high Cd) - but it has a small frontal surface, and we also hit a traffic jam for a while.

I use the sol for city driving, and it's consistent 35~36MPG at the pump.

My CRV can almost hit 30MPG avg driving on flat highways, but looses it to other driving event real easy, or when I load it up with people and gear, or going uphill, which is what my gaslog contains since I only use it for road trips.

[sonyhome]

Exact numbers are in the garage:

49.38 highway
44.56 mountain highway up to 7000ft/2500m and back

Might've beaten 50mpg if I hadn't hit a traffic jam on the highway...

[RightontheMarc]

I once got 40mpg driving 90mph all the way to Kalamazoo. It totally perplexed me.

[Loserkidwac]

very impressive, I have a z1 and trans swapped in my sol, only had it on the road for about 2 weeks now, I have some aero mods planned which I will be posting some feedback about...in my 2 highway trips 250miles each way, I drove there with the roof on and all the windows down, I managed 48mpg, on the way home I left the roof on and just put the rear window down to keep cool, I squeezed 50mpg...I've noticed the with the side windows down, the air seems to hit the inside of the car behind your head and I believe this is creating drag (probably only at highway speeds) but to minimize this by leaving the windows up or just venting them a little should show a difference in mpg!...I have the stock VX grill block and front lip to install along with some light weight HX wheels, I imagine these should also show some gains!


Glad to see some other Del Sol members trying to get good mpg! Let me know if you have any hints or tips! Oh I also just picked up a 4'x8' sheet of coroplast to create a rear underbody pan to keep air from getting caught in the rear bumper, if you are interested I'll post up some dimensions for you once I have it finished!

[sonyhome]

You have a D15, so you should get better mileage than me.

If you look at my log you'll see that it's my daily commuter car, so I usually get around 35MPG with P&G. For that reason I have not focussed much on aero mods, but instead on rolling resistance with high PSI.

If you want a headstart on Del Sol mods, I suggest you try to talk to krousdb on this forum, as he had a 60MPG Sol and did a lot of aero experiments, tuft testing, mods... (might show up on "similar threads" below).

BTW, I always drive with rear window down. The air does flow back, which is fantastic I think

Yeah, do keep me posted on how the mods turn out.

If you want a technical forum for Del Sols I suggest www.teamsolcal.com/forum (The CA TSI chapter is one of the more active ones).

Personally I've been focussing more on the aero of the CR-V, but it's been disappointing because of the large frontal surface, and AT transmission.

[thornburg]

Originally Posted by Loserkidwac

very impressive, I have a z1 and trans swapped in my sol, only had it on the road for about 2 weeks now, I have some aero mods planned which I will be posting some feedback about...in my 2 highway trips 250miles each way, I drove there with the roof on and all the windows down, I managed 48mpg, on the way home I left the roof on and just put the rear window down to keep cool, I squeezed 50mpg...I've noticed the with the side windows down, the air seems to hit the inside of the car behind your head and I believe this is creating drag (probably only at highway speeds) but to minimize this by leaving the windows up or just venting them a little should show a difference in mpg!...I have the stock VX grill block and front lip to install along with some light weight HX wheels, I imagine these should also show some gains!


Glad to see some other Del Sol members trying to get good mpg! Let me know if you have any hints or tips! Oh I also just picked up a 4'x8' sheet of coroplast to create a rear underbody pan to keep air from getting caught in the rear bumper, if you are interested I'll post up some dimensions for you once I have it finished!

Where did you get your coroplast, and how much did you pay?

(Sorry to be OT, but you are least vaguely near me, and the one sign shop I called said $30 for a 3x4--I haven't tried any others yet).

Excellent job on the swap, by the way. It looks great, and you are amazingly persistent about working on it.

[Loserkidwac]

Originally Posted by thornburg

Where did you get your coroplast, and how much did you pay?

(Sorry to be OT, but you are least vaguely near me, and the one sign shop I called said $30 for a 3x4--I haven't tried any others yet).

Excellent job on the swap, by the way. It looks great, and you are amazingly persistent about working on it.

Thanks for the compliments, I have a friend who works at sign-a-rama(or something like that) and she got me a 8'x4' sheet for like $22 +tax though that was a good deal!

Thanks for the compliments!


sonyhome, thanks for the advice! sorry for the thread jack...

[GasSavers_BEEF]

thornburg,

I know I am no where near you but I called a local sign shop in my area and got an 8 by 4 sheet for $20. I'd say to call around. they charge out the tail to print them but when they find out that you just want the coroplast, it usually gets a lot cheaper. you may have caught them on a bad day.

I am sure you can find a better deal in your area.