Tri-State Fuel Economy Championship 9-18-11

[blownb310]

Seems they have a time limit to edit posts here? I can't edit you into the original roster above but yes consider yourself registered. Welcome aboard. I received the route instruction attachment via email today and can forward them, but I don't have an address for you. Mine is mikek ([at)] icerace ([dot)] com. Send me a note and I'll get them to you asap.

Mike

[blownb310]

Route instructions have just been sent out to all registered drivers. See you all on Sunday!

Mike

[1993CivicVX]

I'm realizing this activity is just too unrealistic without an odometer. Navigating is one of the things I hate the most, and this would just end up being a big waste of time because I would spend all my energy trying to make the correct turn instead of trying to drive a certain way. One mistake and who knows how many miles I would have actually driven. :-/ So, sorry I didn't show up.

[blownb310]

Originally Posted by 1993CivicVX

I'm realizing this activity is just too unrealistic without an odometer. Navigating is one of the things I hate the most, and this would just end up being a big waste of time because I would spend all my energy trying to make the correct turn instead of trying to drive a certain way. One mistake and who knows how many miles I would have actually driven. :-/ So, sorry I didn't show up.

No problem Jason! Thanks for letting me know.

Mike

[blownb310]

Tri-State Fuel Economy Championship Results

The first ever Tri-State Fuel Economy Championship went off under perfect weather conditions on September 18th, out of Williamstown, MA. The theme of the event was "Cars vs Bikes" and Steve Mauk of Max BMW Motorcycles, organized the roster of 17 motorcycles. Although the event was open to any motorcycle, only two non BMW bikes came out to play. One was a Kawasaki KL 250 and the other a Harley Davidson Street Glide. On the car/truck side of things we had 9 entries.

In prior A.M.E.C. economy run events the best that a motorcycle was able to achieve [Ernie Yue's '08 Kawasaki Ninja 250] was 73.06 mpg.


However the record books [and the cars] were overhauled by Steve Mauk's 103.65 mpg figure, riding a completely stock 2011 BMW G650GS.


Steve [on the right] is over six feet tall and he mounted a pillow on the tank to rest on as he crouched as low as possible for the full 105 miles of the course, which wound it's way through the Berkshires of MA, continuing though portions of VT and NY. Needless to say he was a bit stiff after getting off of the bike! You can hear it in his voice in the event video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HMFc92Ax54. The award is being presented by Max BMW's Ben Stratton.



Mount Greylock was the biggest challenge for all of the participants, but especially for the cars, as their mass necessitated using engine braking to keep their brakes from overheating down the long narrow decent.


Jim Stoddard rode BMW's brand new 1600cc touring bike, the 2011 K1600GTL with its 1649cc inline-six, and managed to get 59.55 mpg with it. He didn't even remove the bags or top case!

Jonathan Bartlett topped the Diesel/Hybrid class with a stellar 79.38 mpg figure in a borrowed '98 VW Jetta TDi. Now that's impressive. I wish I had a picture of the car. There was nothing visible done to it!


Steve handed out awards to all other participants.


My 1991 2.0 liter Sentra SE-R with lots of duct tape and choroplast on board. I was rewarded with more than double the factory highway rating of 29 mpg, with a new personal best of 76.12 mpg.




Our friend Hobbit was there with his 2004 Toyota Prius

More event pictures can be viewed here: Fuel Economy Contest - MAX BMW - Andrew Phillips

Motorcycles under 700cc:

1. Steve Mauk, 2011 BMW G650-GS [single] - 103.65 mpg

2. Bruce Lemeiux, 2009 BMW F650GS [single] - 95.02 mpg

3. Gregg Templeton, 2002 Kawasaki KL 250 Super Sherpa - 88.60 mpg

4. Fred Jones, 2009 BMW F650GS [single] - 80.09 mpg

5. Joe Warner, 1964 BMW R27 - 76.58 mpg

6. Jeff Parker, 1967 BMW R50/2 - 64.97 mpg

7. Andrew Phillips, 1968 BMW R60/2 - 64.93 mpg

8. Michael Conway, BMW - 50.70 mpg

Motorcycles over 700cc:

1. Chris Benda, 2010 F650GS [twin 800cc actual] - 75.485 mpg

2. Max Stratton, 1967 BMW R60/2 - 72.514 mpg

3. Ben Stratton, BMW 2010 R12R - 71.575 mpg

4. Max Schling, 2011 BMW F800ST - 70.328 mpg

5. Jeff Frisch, 2006 BMW R1200RS - 67.093 mpg

6. Rick Butterfield, 2010 BMW R1200GSA - 50.823 mpg

7. George Yonnone, 1992 BMW K100RS - 49.203 mpg

8. Steve Remslow, 2012 Harley Davidson, Street Glide - 49.065 mpg

Gas Cars:

1. Mike Kamm, 1991 Nissan Sentra SE-R - 76.12 mpg

2. Ken Snowman, 1990 VW Jetta [gas] - 53.51 mpg

3. Gabrielle Isenbrand, 1993 Honda Civic Del Sol S - 49.05 mpg

4. Ron Kienhuis, 2001 Subaru Forester - 36.01 mpg

Diesels/Hybrids:

1. Jonathan Bartlett, 1998 VW Jetta TDI diesel - 79.38 mpg

2. Hobbit, 2004 Toyota Pruis - 70.6 mpg

3. Arthur Evans, 2000 Honda Insight - 68.27 mpg

4. Louise Kodela, 2000 Honda Insight - 62.2 mpg

Trucks:

1. Carter Willey, 1980 Iveco Zeta 100 [diesel] - 24.28 mpg

[Lug_Nut]

Originally Posted by blownb310

Jonathan Bartlett topped the Diesel/Hybrid class with a stellar 79.38 mpg figure in a borrowed '98 VW Jetta TDi. Now that's impressive. I wish I had a picture of the car. There was nothing visible done to it!

Other than the tire pressures up to the sidewall posted max of 44 psi nothing was done.

Here's how it looked when the prior owner listed it for sale in 2009. The roof racks and bumper stickers have been removed, and 3,670 more miles have been put on the odometer, but not much else looks to have been changed.
http://picasaweb.google.com/10484589...95869110218482

[itjstagame]

Mike, I'm so glad you're still at it, I just looked over the past few events, very nice. I was at Economy Run II, but have been out of the area since.

I finally got back in the area and see you just ran and event, very cool, hopefully I can make next years.

Any idea why you ended up with so few car entrants? I'm just surprised since the other Economy Runs were such a success.

Keep up the good work.

[blownb310]

Originally Posted by itjstagame

Any idea why you ended up with so few car entrants? I'm just surprised since the other Economy Runs were such a success.

Keep up the good work.

Thanks Chris!

The biggest reason for the small car count was short notice. The event was announced only 30 days before the event and most people already had other plans in that very prime time of the year. Plus we had a few drop out the day before. There were plenty of bikes because the organizer works at Max BMW and asked everyone who walked through the door if they'd like to participate.

Check this out, the stock looking [gas] Jetta that got 53.51 mpg in the event has really stepped up his game:



We plan to go out and run the original course through the southern Adirondacks [that you ran on with us a few years ago] in a couple of weeks. And he wants to beat my Nissan this time.

There's a thread about it here.

Mike

[VX_Arky]

Ok, this is only in good fun, but as a fuel-consumption and fuel-efficient conscious community, shouldn't this be discouraged rather than condoned??

I mean, we are wasting gas to prove how much we can save it!!

Oh the irony !!!!

[itjstagame]

Well overall we are car enthusiasts and AMEC is racers so at least they're using less gas than the typical competition. Then again though if you can drive around getting the 118MPG that CRX did last year at this event, you can do a few events a year and drive across country and still probably use less fuel than typical americans.

Cool Mike, yes I remember the VW, he was a cool guy and did very well the year I went too. I'm gonna look over the thread now but are you going to use your B210 or your Sentra? I love that first route we did, I wish I had the Festiva that time, I just wasn't able to get it inspected until a few weeks later due to bald tires. I did get 50MPG out of it on my daily commute for the 6 months after though before moving out of the area.

I thought about another Festy but they just are not safe enough for the retards around my normal commute here and I wanted more space and less rattly box, so I've got a year to get my clean SW2 dialed in before your next event, I have high hopes for it though.