In a presumed attempt to prove
questionable reports about the Prius' true fuel efficiency dead wrong, a Japanese group of mileage maniacs (or nenpimania) have assembled to push their hybrids to the brink and utilize a sly combination of hackery and zen-ish ways to elicit
extreme miles per gallon figures. One such enthusiast burns his gas money on special tires, cardboard surround for the engine bay (saywha?), and blocks of foam rubber that occupy the grill, and somehow manages about 100 mpg by "hacking into the
Toyota's computer" and carefully manipulating the accelerator with just his large toe. One upping even him, however, is a fellow
mpg freak dubbed Teddy-Girl, who has reportedly become such a master of the "pulse and glide" method of driving that she can crank out 116 miles on a single gallon of fuel. Of course, sustaining such numbers on even mild inclines is entirely unlikely, and we're fairly sure you're hearing best case scenarios with all these gaudy numbers, but until we're all cruising in purely
electric whips, this doesn't sound like a half bad approach to keep those trips to the pump at a minimum.
[Via
The Raw Feed]
posted April 6th 2007 5:54PM
yeah but if you drive a hybrid OR a scooter, people will think you're gay... I'll stick with my 1.8T - thats good enough on gas mileage and people dont think youre a total pansy
My American friends, you should look over the ocean. There is other cars than the Japanes marketing hypes.
You can get a Polo Diesel with 62mpg (I guess you don't have the Polo...)
A Golf or Audi A3 Diesel you can get with 52mpg
you can also get a 170hp A3 Diesel with around 43mpg and the torque of a small V8 ;-)
If your people didn't hate diesels that much, you might maybe some day get these (I think the Golf diesel you can get with 47mpg)
Do you know the VW Lupo? they don't build it anymore, but there was a 3l version (as in 3l/100km) mpg: 78 ;-)
Greetings, wisi
Here's the one thing people are forgetting... when driving a Prius or ALMOST any other hybrid... you look like a douchebag cuz the cars are ridiculous looking. I can get a diesel VW that looks like every other VW on the road, and get just as good of gas mileage, have some torque, and not look like a toolbag.
Hybrids will really take off when they become an engine option, not a model option.
I'm liking my Vette Z06.
505 N/A HP and 28mpg highway... Who cares about the city mileage ;)
This mileage is a nice accomplishment
I have a BMW 650i Convertible - 15 mpg MAX .. but..
Chicks LOVE my car!
here is a pic
http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u239/JeffNLA/?action=view¤t=BWM3.jpg
I got to say, I love to see this kind of dialogue.
I just bought a 2006 jeep liberty limited Common Rail Diesel. With an aftermarket computer controller which boosts mpg, increases HP, Torq, and pretty much eliminates smoke from exhaust, I am getting 35-36 on the highway and consistently 27-28 in the city. The vehicle is also converted to run on veggie oil, so, between the relatively cheap cost of diesel and biodiesel, and the readily available FREE waste veggie oil from the Chinese restaurant down the hill, I spend about $20 a month of fuel. Biodiesel, while it does have problems such as its dependence on methanol and lye, is far closer to being carbon neutral than any hybrid which is still burning fossil fuels. And with the vegetable oil I'm getting free fuel and helping local business by taking oil they would normally have to pay to have removed. Oh yeah, its an SUV, not some Honda CRV that is built on a car suspension, but a fully off road trail tested jeep which can handle the mountain roads of Alaska, (where I’m from), as well as it can handle the mean streets of the bay area, (where I currently live). Jeep just released a diesel version of the grand Cherokee which gets similar mileage to the liberty with more horsepower and torq so the possibilities are endless. And if people are worried about acceleration, they shouldn't be, I go 0-60 in about 5.4 seconds.
My next project is to add an electric synergy drive to the liberty to recapture energy from braking and from the extra RPM's off the engine. Should be able to bring that city average up to 37-38 and bump the highway up closer to 41-42. The whole thing only cost me $24,000 which really isn't that bad for such a new SUV and I save about $2700 a year on fuel compared to what I was paying to run my Chevy Tahoe. So for all those out there who completely disregard the hybrids because they are not particularly functional outside of a commuting profile, check out the diesel SUVS and trucks with SVO systems (Straight Vegetable Oil).
Ottar,
I saw that you converted your Liberty to run on veggie oil. I'm thinking of doing the same - have you had any problems with it or heard of anyone else having problems, and what is the best kit to use? Also what kind of computer controller did you get and how much was it?
Thanks!
Hey Sheena,
I haven't had any problems. I've read about people having problems with the diesel liberty's in general, issues with the PCM (computer) not being configured corectly and resulting in the some engine issues. Jeep issued a fix for the computer issue but it also resulted in a loss of MPGs. I don't have any of those issues since I'm using the aftermarket computer controller which came with the vehicle, since I bought it with the conversion already done. You can purchase the computer controller, (and the whole conversion if you so desire), from the company who did mine here (www.goldenfuelsystems.com). The guy I dealt with was Charles Anderson, a very nice and helpful guy. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.
--Ottar