R50/53 Horrible Gas Mileage?
Bit of a highjack of the thread but a good gas story -
I was on vacation in Northern California last week having a blast on one of the greatest roads in the world, Highway 1 from San Francisco north and I was running very low on fuel so I stopped at the first gas station I could find outside of Mendocino. Two pumps outside a little store. Filled up with 91 octane and then of course 4 miles later there were several gas stations where I could have saved $.20 a gallon - oh well.
About 35 miles past Mendocino the MCS started missing - first at 3000 RPM under constant load, then it stopped , then at 4000 RPM, then it stopped, then it got worse, got better - etc. I have driven this car 40K miles since June 2002 - never a problem like this.
About this time Highway 1 "ends" and goes inland for 22 miles to join Highway 101. This is from above Rockport to Leggett. This road was THE best I have ever been on through a forest because the quality of the pavement was absolutely perfect and no loose rocks. It was wider than most of these type of roads and during the week no traffic and oh no cops either. Saw a pretty good sized black bear cross the road in front of me. That would put a hurt on a MINI!
But I have a car that is limping along and getting worse and finally at just 10 miles from 101, it dies. Pull off on a sliver of a shoulder with lots of poison oak. Fiddle around a bit, starts and dies. Saw no cars pass for 30 minutes. Cell phone - HAH! Need a sat phone where this is. Let it cool off and it magically ran well all the way to 101. Topped the tank off with Chevron Techron as soon as I could and popped in an STP octane booster and end of problem.
Loved that road so much I stayed 20 miles away, got up at 6:00 A.M.next morning and went back over it north to south - WOWWW!, turned around and did it back again south to north and this time I counted the number of turns which does help with the concentration. 357 turns in 22 miles. Now I have never been to the Dragon with its 318 turns in 11 miles, but Highway 1 is a lot closer than North Carolina for me. And there were a couple of high speed sections where I almost saw triple digits, so it isn't just an Autocross course.
Moral of the story, I now always carry a bottle of octane booster. I don't think I got 87 octane labeled and sold as 91 octane, I think the gas was just plain bad. I did not buy my MCS because of its great gas mileage. BTW, I averaged 23.7 mpg calculated on my 2600 mile trip around California to Vegas and back to LA.
Sorry about highjacking the thread, but I thought you would enjoy a MINI road story with a happy ending.
I was on vacation in Northern California last week having a blast on one of the greatest roads in the world, Highway 1 from San Francisco north and I was running very low on fuel so I stopped at the first gas station I could find outside of Mendocino. Two pumps outside a little store. Filled up with 91 octane and then of course 4 miles later there were several gas stations where I could have saved $.20 a gallon - oh well.
About 35 miles past Mendocino the MCS started missing - first at 3000 RPM under constant load, then it stopped , then at 4000 RPM, then it stopped, then it got worse, got better - etc. I have driven this car 40K miles since June 2002 - never a problem like this.
About this time Highway 1 "ends" and goes inland for 22 miles to join Highway 101. This is from above Rockport to Leggett. This road was THE best I have ever been on through a forest because the quality of the pavement was absolutely perfect and no loose rocks. It was wider than most of these type of roads and during the week no traffic and oh no cops either. Saw a pretty good sized black bear cross the road in front of me. That would put a hurt on a MINI!
But I have a car that is limping along and getting worse and finally at just 10 miles from 101, it dies. Pull off on a sliver of a shoulder with lots of poison oak. Fiddle around a bit, starts and dies. Saw no cars pass for 30 minutes. Cell phone - HAH! Need a sat phone where this is. Let it cool off and it magically ran well all the way to 101. Topped the tank off with Chevron Techron as soon as I could and popped in an STP octane booster and end of problem.
Loved that road so much I stayed 20 miles away, got up at 6:00 A.M.next morning and went back over it north to south - WOWWW!, turned around and did it back again south to north and this time I counted the number of turns which does help with the concentration. 357 turns in 22 miles. Now I have never been to the Dragon with its 318 turns in 11 miles, but Highway 1 is a lot closer than North Carolina for me. And there were a couple of high speed sections where I almost saw triple digits, so it isn't just an Autocross course.
Moral of the story, I now always carry a bottle of octane booster. I don't think I got 87 octane labeled and sold as 91 octane, I think the gas was just plain bad. I did not buy my MCS because of its great gas mileage. BTW, I averaged 23.7 mpg calculated on my 2600 mile trip around California to Vegas and back to LA.
Sorry about highjacking the thread, but I thought you would enjoy a MINI road story with a happy ending.
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I have been trying some different driving styles on my 100 mile return daily commute.If I go at the posted speed of 100km[62mph]I get 38 of your mpg,If I go 110+km[70-75mph]I get 36 mpg.The odd time that I can hold myself to 90km[55mph]I get 41 mpg.110+ costs more,but way more fun
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