Ksminiman,

Well, I'm it the Shenandoah Vally in Virginia and work up on a mountain 1117 feet higher than were I live. It modulates up and down hill in both directions, but I guess you could call it "Country" driving. I'm not stopping and starting in traffic, that's for sure. I think the trick is keeping the bulk of your motoring below 3000 RPM. Best MPG at 2500 RPM.

 

I was on a recent trip where the speed limit was 80 mph for about 500 miles. I couldn't believe that I was only getting 25/26 mpg(per computer estimation). At night, the same speed limit area is 65 and it goes back up to a way more reasonable 32/33. If I drive for mileage around town I can get high 30's very low 40's(per computer estimation).

 

It makes sense to me, actually. Wind resistance increases with speed, which means that you need that much more power to counteract the wind resistance going 80 vs. going 65, ultimately meaning you use more gas to go the same distance....

The math on this gets **REALLY UGLY** really quick, but that's the gist of it....

HTH!

C ya,
Dutch

 

In my '03 R50: filled up Sunday morning, drove 100 miles that day, still have 7/8 of a tank. Drove a bit more today, but the needle hasn't moved. I'm driving real slow and shifting to keep the cruising RPM around 2,500. I hope it pays off!!!

 

On my 04 MCS, I can reset the counter and baby it all the way to the freeway for 31mpg but the second I launch up the on-ramp, it falls to 22mpg. haha =]

 

Has anybody else reset the counter at the top of a long hill and rode down in neutral? The highest it will read is 99 mpg.

 

so chineese overdrive is only good for 99mpg? bummer.

 

I thought that was the Scotsman's overdrive.

Macht's nicht. Frugal knows no nationality boundaries....

I've noticed that I tend to lose less MPG going up a hill than I gain going down the other side.

I wonder if MINI's ECU does like the Ford EEC-IV and EEC-V ECUs does and shuts off fuel on throttle-off high-vacuum conditions like coasting down a hill while in gear would cause.... I had a couple Ford Escorts before the MINI, and they really dig deep into hopping them up over on feoa.net! I learned a *lot* about the various ECU sensor systems and how they work--to the point I figured out how to fool the EGR sensor into believing my car had EGR (from '91 until '94 it was only on CA cars) when I swapped in a '95 ECU to get the better fuel/air maps to go along with the much better-flowing '95 MAF sensor....

C ya,
Dutch

 

That's a beautiful area.... I was just through there on a cross-country trip a couple years ago. If we hadn't started out a day and a half late, I'd've had to have the convoy I was leading stop and see Luray Caverns, which I haven't seen since I was little, back in the '70s, when dirt was rocks and Moby ***** was a minnow....

Maybe if I get to do MOTD next year or the year after, I can swing by there and see that again. I also want to stop in to Oak Hill, WV for similar reasons and see Thurmond Overlook again, and squeal my casings around some of those WV mountain curves.... That road trip will finally give me long enough stretches of road to see what kind of mileage my '03 will get on the open road with no city driving (other than on/off the interstate for gas and loo stops). So far, Tucson (120 or so miles away) and Sierra Vista (180 miles) are the furthest places I've strayed since I got my MINI--which isn't really enough to stretch out and see how the highway mileage goes....

C ya,
Dutch

 

wtf lol.

I get like 300 miles a tank..

 

joe I am impressed you seem to know a bit about the Fords. I know exactly what you are talking about as far as the fuel shut offs and such. the MINIs should do fuel shut off at speed. I would be surprised if they didnt. the biggest thing I have noticed lately is that they seem to do it more readily at the higher RPM ranges. cruising in 4th at 35mph instead of 5th I notice that under throttle the numbers go a little lower however as soon as I am out of the throttle they shoot right up to 99.9. where as in 5th I find they dont always go up as readily.

I cant wait to get a programmer for this car so I can take a look at more raw data like I could on my old Ford.

I am sure like the Fords these cars are tuned really rich for engine longevity. I plan on having mine tuned (or doing it myself) and crank up some of the ratios for a little leaner burn for some better mileage in cruise conditions.

 

Is there a low-fuel light in our cars? Cause the red light turns on on the last needle, I am scared to drive it all the way down because what if theres no yellow indicator?

 

I usually only get about 22-23 mpg. I've always thought this is a little low. I have an 02 S with a 15% sc pulley and other stuff in my sig. From what Blimey said, this sounds reasonable.

 

we usually compute gas mileage by kms/L but converted to MPG, i get around 22-23mpg too, and that's with the a/c on ALWAYS (tropical country, go figure) can smaller overall diameter of my tires compared to stock have any significant impact on my MPG?

 

gas mileage is, among other things, proportionate to the weight of your right foot in relation to the horsepower/torque of your car.
I read the math one day on the veyron's 1000hp, but in a nutshell it takes X amount of fuel and Y amount of air to produce Z force/heat to move a piston at a certain velocity to make a target amount of HP. At full throttle, the veyron dumps it's gas tank (25g maybe?) in 15 minutes.

In other words, adding a s/c pulley especially, more mods == more right foot syndrome == less gas mileage

 

Add another 06 MCSa to the mix, 22-23 in town, around 28 on the highway last I checked.

 

I usually use Techron, but this last tank I switched to shell and I've been getting 25-26 as opposed to my usual 22-23. Not sure if anyone else has noticed a change with gas brands.

 

Will try, been using Chevron and getting ~23mpg.. Next fill up will be Shell.

02 MCS here..

 

I've taken my '05 MCS 6spd down to just below the empty line although I generally back off my lead foot when that low just to play it safe. I avg around 27 MPG(mostly highway much lowere around town) but every stop light is a race and I don't like to lose.

 

Well, there are 13.1 Gallons in the tank. When the red light comes on you have from 1.5 to 2 gallons left in the tank. I've taken mine all the way down to 5 miles left on the "distance to empty" computer indicator and when I filled up still had a little less than 1 gallon in the tank. Those "back off" features are designed to keep you from running it to empty. I don't think I'd go beyond the "0" miles to empty mark. (I wonder if it goes to negative numbers after it hits "0"?)

 

No more wondering about negative numbers...it stays at 0. And no, I didn't run out of gas. I drove it (with a very light foot) for probably another 2-3 miles before getting to a gas station. This was after a long day at the track getting probably 12 or 13 mpg.

 

apparently my right foot gets 10mpg if I floor it.. hmm.

 

Around 20mpg usually. I have gotten almost 30 once. M7 pulley, brisk plugs, alta cai.

 

same experience on a standstill, it would read 1 then as soon as i get moving it goes to zero but the time came when even on a standstill it was reading zero. boy was i praying hard

 

Just calculated my MPG on my last fill up. I get about 29.4 combined MPG on my R50, 5 spd. I used to get like 33 or so when I first got the car a few years ago... I just reset my ECU so I'll check it again next fill up