Sunday May 6
Got home (Springfield MO) about 2:30 after a great time at the dragon.
I have already made reservations for next year.
One of my goals in attending the dragon was to determine what MPG the MINI could get after reading various complaints in numerous threads.

I have kept a detailed record of my fuel consumtpion since geting the car Nov 06 in St. Louis. The worst I have gotten was 23.96 after picking the car up in St. Louis and driving the 210 miles home.

After driving the car up till the dragon the mileage has increased till it now stands at 28.5 MPG on the daily drive and I do not drive like g'ma but I don't get carried away either.

So here is a record of the dragon trip;
Wednesday filled up, miles 4878 temp 72 scattered rain
drive 300 miles to Paudcah Ky and fill up 9.12 gal. 32.68 MPG
road conditions 50% 4 lane rolling hills moderate grades spd 70

05/03/07 Thursday leave Paducah drive to Marysville Tn and fill up
314 miles / 10.35 gal 30.34 MPG
weather 70 degree roads 4 lane
Met up with a group of 8 MINI's in Nashville which I decided to run with but they were running 80/90 so I dropped out.

Got to Marysville about 2ish filled up then hit the dragon fooled around Fontana then to Bryson city for the night. Back to Fontana all day Friday then Bryson city again. Sat back to Fontana for the picture, WOW what a great thing that was then to Ashville, tour the Biltmore and fill up

Ashville 355 miles / 12.06 gals 29.44 MPG
after flogging the car over the dragon and all the other driving around there this is un believable and yes I have checked the spedo to see if it is accurate.

Still Saturday, continue back to Nashville and fill up at Oak Grove KY 70- 75 MPH
349 miles / 10.6 gals 32.92 MPG

OK now for serious economy.
4 lane flat road to Paducah Ky on cruise @ 70 clear 70 degrees
82 miles / 1.89 gals 43.4 MPG and no I don't know how?

last leg home from Paducah to Springfield
312 miles / 9.54 gals 32.70 MPG

total gals 53.56
total miles 1710
avg MPG 31.93

any questions

 

Did you happen to check your overall average speed? I get 'good' gas mileage in my 05 MCS, too but not like yours on your trip tho.

 

A recent 2000 mile round trip and at speeds consistently above 80mph I got 32 - 33 mph at each fill up. On a few hundred mile stretch of back roads at 55 and 60mph the mini got over 35mpg.

Tires can make a huge difference. This is for an 03 MCS and at the time it had only a CAI. Now it has a CAI and a 15% pulley. I have not noticed a drop in gas mileage since the pulley but I have also not been on long trips yet.

Tires / air pressure can make a huge impact. I am running 215/45 and put about 34 psi in them.

 

30 mpg? I don't get it I filled up in Marysville, ran up and down the dragon a couple of times and topped off in Fontana. I got a whopping 17.2 mbg in my Cabrio S. Maybe I should keep the top up next time to have the air flow by :} Think that may double my mileage to 34?

 

Well there are a lot of variables I did not cover but tires and air pressure certainly are two. I have 17" S lites with 205/45/R17 84 Goodyears
air pressure measured this morning is about 30# which I suppose is a little low although there is no indication of scrubbing on the sidewalls. Actually I got the car in late November 06 and had never checked the pressure till this morning as the little pressure lite had never come on and there was no indication of any problems and still isn't.
I do not have the average speed as I am not THAT organized.
However my average speed on the legs to and from the dragon have to be pretty high in the 65 - 70 range as I do not like to block traffic. That being said, I did notice that traffic in Tn moved a lot faster than anywhere else,
like at least 80.
One other mileage factor I hadn't mentioned was the AC. it was not used going too but coming back I did have it running at least part of the time as it got up to 88 in Springfield yesterday. I wondered why the mileage wasn't better that last 300 miles and that was probably it.

The most important thing though was that I had a BLAST at the dragon!!!!

PS: My "S" is completely stock ( not that it will stay that way ) except for the boost gauge on the dash which can be clearly seen on the "killboy" site for Thursday the 3rd pic # 350 - 352 today CR/W

 

Take it out of second gear some time!