What is the most economical shift point for each gear on the 6-speed manual?

 

I always try to short shift just before 3,000 RPM. Lots of rowing but gets better economy than than getting into the supercharger above 3,000. Also, do not rush to get to the shift point. Take it nice and easy (YEAH, RIGHT! ) and anticipate what is happening in half mile or mile down the road and drive accordingly.

Good Luck!

 

If I'm going for max economy, which I do mostly these days, I also shift just short of 3000 rpm, but I also skip shift. I shift 1st, 3rd then 6th. I'm averaging 30mpg in mostly around town driving, maybe 25% highway, compared to around 25 mpg doing normal shifting. Try it, it works!

 

is it ok to skip shift? i haev never done it. .

 

Yeah its fine. just dont lug the engine thats gonna use more fuel.
I have a header and a cam on the car so theres more than enough power from 2 thousand on up. IT really comes alive the farther up you push it.

 

Not to mention lugging the engine is pretty hard on it. Probably the most important bit of fuel economy is maintaining your speed with a minimum of variation. Every time you accelerate, you burn a little more fuel than you save during decelerations, particularly on long trips. Over trips over 500 miles in my old Honda Civic, I've seen my cruise control increase my mileage by 3-5 mpg, simply by being more consistent with throttle application.

 

Shift as early as possible without lugging, and use cruise control whenever possible. make it a game to keep your car going as constant a speed as you can. on the highway, look waaaay ahead and figure out the smoothest line. unless you are late, this is more fuel efficient and also more entertaining to do. happy motoring!

 

It doesnt seem worth it to me, I am glad some of you are skip shifting and stuff its fun to hear and learn about but if you get 5 MPG better on your whole tank you really are saving 6-8 bucks a tank, and i would assume that it would be worth it to just have fun with your mini.

Not harping on anyone, to each his own, just my thoughts for the day.

But then again, what if we could have just HALF of the population do that, save 5 MPG, crude oil would go from the 140 a barrel now back to 70 or so!! haha

 

I dont down shift

 

Your fuel efficiency won't impact how much you pay for gas on a per-tank basis, but it will impact how often you fill up. Depending on how often you drive, you could realize a huge savings.

Let's say one tankful is 10 gallons, and it costs $4 per gallon of gas, so one tank costs $40. For illustration, assume your base MPG is 10 MPG. This means your range is 100 miles per tank. Let's also assume that you drive 1200 miles in one month. This means you fill up 12 times at a cost of $40 each, which leads to $480 spent on fuel per month.

If you improve your mileage to 15 MPG, your range improves to 150 miles per tank. Consequently, you only need to fill up four times a month, which means you only spend $160 per month, a savings of $320.

Obviously, this example is pretty drastic (a 50% increase in mileage). An improvement from 22 MPG to 27 MPG, for instance, won't save as much per month ($45) but when added up, it could make a difference in one's budget.

 

before i started train commuting, i was spending 15 bucks a day to commute by car. it may not seem worth it to you, but every mpg i saved was money in the bank, and per month it could end up being enough to pay my phone bill, simply by driving differently. pretty cool if you ask me.

 

very true.

 

Every dollar I don't spend on fuel is a dollar for me. Rather than handing it off to big oil.

 

I can attest that smoother shifting and more constant speeds help mpg through personal experience. Another thing that I do also is, try to consolidate my car trips and where I'm going to drive so that I can try to do random errands all in one go as opposed to backtracking down the same road.

However, I was thinking, and if any one can attest to it as well, that with the replacement of a better CAI and Exhaust that my MPG would go up even more IF I were to drive economically with the addition of both. While it can be tempting to push the car with speed up grades, I'm more than sure I can be well disciplined enough to drive economically when I want to. Would the addition of both these parts increase my MPG even further?

 

i didnt read the entire thread, but a 15% reduction pulley did quite
well in gaining better fuel economy.

also keeping the rev's between 2500-3000rpm while cruising.

 

hmm, i dont know about the s/c pulley helping the fuel economy. Exhausts and CAI help the engine breathe which obviously increases the efficiency of the engine, but how does a s/c pulley help? Its boosting more, which means the ECU has to balance the extra air with extra fuel (this is why it is more powerful). none of that is saying to me "fuel efficiency". You can shift earlier im sure because it has more low end grunt, but once you get into 6th on the highway your speed is directly related to engine rpm. this means that for the same speed, the pulleyed engine has to put more fuel in to balance that extra air. i still dont see where youre getting a boost in fuel efficiency with a smaller s/c pulley installed. am i wrong?

 

You have got to remember that whether or not the engine is seeing boost has to do with load not RPM. This is because of our bypass valves which allow the supercharger to recirculate boost back into the intake of the SC negating the issue you mentioned and the parasitic drag on the engine the SC creates. By adding a pulley you are basically shifting the boost "map" towards lower RPM. With more power at RPM you can apply less throttle to get an equivalent amount of power. And when you are cruising on the highway it makes no differance as the bypass valve is open.

Remember you still have a throttle plate that limits the actual amount of air coming into the engine. If you arent opening the throttle as much, you arent letting in as much air resulting in less fuel use.

(that second paragraph I sorta just put together based on my own logic, but it seems fairly sound.)

 

Exactly! My mileage went up between 1-2 mpg's after the addition of a 15% pulley and CAI.

 

I noticed a sharp increase with fuel economy when I started shifting between 2k & 2,500 rpms.

 

Anything up to redline gives me better fuel economy than the GTO that I traded in for the MCS...

I see more of a gain in mileage by staying under 70 mph or following an SUV (or any larger vehicle) as opposed to my previously preferred 80+ mph highway jaunts, than compared to accelerating at the pace of a cement truck. I still drive spiritedly when the opportunity to accelerate briskly presents itself, or else I would've gone for a regular Cooper.

The Mini is not very aerodynamic, so faster highway speeds really have a more pronounced effect on MPG if you aren't allowing another vehicle to cut through the wind in front of you. I'm not advocating NASCAR style drafting, but staying in the 1-2 second range behind another car (or whatever is safe/comfortable for you and doesn't upset the driver in front of you) at highway speeds does make a significant difference versus plowing through the air on your own.

 

Very true. Our other car is a Honda Insight and it is very noticeable the difference between driving alone and getting behind someone. Being in a group of cars is just as good as tucking in behind a semi. I've managed 37 mpg OBC in our MCS (came out around 34 when hand calculated) on an all-highway trip averaging 70-75 mph. When driving alone, that figure drops by several mpg's.

Other things I do...
Keep it steady - if you want to be economical, don't jab the go pedal or the brake (use the MINI's handling to keep speed up in corners when possible)
Anticipate - if you see traffic coming to a stop ahead, get off the gas
Shift around 2500 rpm - the MCS doesn't like being under 2k rpm in higher gears and A/F ratios drop quickly over 3k.

 

One question: when you say "the A/F drops over 3k RPM" are you referring to the Air/Fuel ratio?

 

Yeah.

 

Put the car on cruise control and then see how long you can leave it there even in traffic....a challenging game of wits.

 

I agree with this, but this thread is more about how to increase MPGs than how we should drive our cars.

For the most part I usually shift quickly out of 1st, below 3K, then shift at about 3K for 2nd, then 3rd, and then I usually skip 4th or 5th. 4th gear is perfect for merging onto the highway.