RE: PistonHeads trolls MPG Marathon
Discussion
Gordon911 said:
I am the Dad of one of the 17 year olds that averaged 93.8 mpg over 392 miles in the MPG Marathon and came 5th overall http://bit.ly/ERMPG15 . They are both car nuts and have been driving since they were 11 at www.under17-carclub.co.uk . One drives a car with an official fuel consumption in the 20s and the other is saving to buy a project E30 while driving a sensible but fun to drive car. They were lucky enough to be sponsored by Honda to drive a Civic 1.6 i-DTEC in the MPG Challenge and they enjoyed driving it. They took their Under 17 Car Club experience and applied their observation and planning skills to the max to maintain momentum. They are also able to drive proficiently doing Advanced Driving at Castle Combe with slightly poorer MPG 
.
They would both love to do it again - in a Caterham would be fun or maybe a Civic Type R.
You should be proud of yourself. I hope my children are as involved in cars from a young age as yours have been.. They would both love to do it again - in a Caterham would be fun or maybe a Civic Type R.
glazbagun said:
big_rob_sydney said:
But seriously, WTF has the world come to when you're switching off the engine through villages? Is this what ICE progress has led us to?
Have I missed something? I thought fuel injection automatically cuts the fuel if you're lifting off in gear, what benefit would come from turning off the engine?
holes doing 28 in a NSL. glazbagun said:
Have I missed something? I thought fuel injection automatically cuts the fuel if you're lifting off in gear, what benefit would come from turning off the engine?
It does, but then you're using the cars forward momentum to turn the engine over, so you slow down quicker.If you put the clutch in, then the engine uses some fuel to idle whilst you coast along.
The 17 year olds were briefed by Honda and the The Under 17 Car Club instructors in the techniques that would work and be safe. Normal engine automatic stop/start was used. Mostly they would lift off while in a high gear, there were occasional conditions where coasting out of gear was best and the only time the engine was "off" while moving was the coast downhill at the very start. The routes for each leg were planned in advance to minimise energy loss and maximise the chance of keeping moving.
Turning the ignition off can be very dangerous depending on the car - risk of steering lock engaging, no power steering and no brake servo assistance.
For safety on Motorways and Dual carriageways they were requested to keep up with the trucks, as appropriate, even though that speed was slightly higher than optimum.
I'm not sure if the 17s were doing the 28 in a NSL - I think they averaged high 30s mph over the 2 days. Whatever - MPG Marathon is an economy competition and the idea is to do as well as the drivers and the car can. Through observation they always knew if they were holding up vehicles and then tried to make themselves easy to overtake.
I think the Caterham did one of the lowest distances over the two days - probably through self confessed lack of route optimisation for mpg.
Turning the ignition off can be very dangerous depending on the car - risk of steering lock engaging, no power steering and no brake servo assistance.
For safety on Motorways and Dual carriageways they were requested to keep up with the trucks, as appropriate, even though that speed was slightly higher than optimum.
I'm not sure if the 17s were doing the 28 in a NSL - I think they averaged high 30s mph over the 2 days. Whatever - MPG Marathon is an economy competition and the idea is to do as well as the drivers and the car can. Through observation they always knew if they were holding up vehicles and then tried to make themselves easy to overtake.
I think the Caterham did one of the lowest distances over the two days - probably through self confessed lack of route optimisation for mpg.
j90gta said:
Just goes to show the irrelevance of Manufacturers' fuel consumption (and emissions!!!) figures. They bear no resemblance whatsoever to what is achievable in real-world driving conditions. Surely it is about time that the details of how a car performs are not left up to people in white coats putting a car in a laboratory? The car-buying public is being totally misled, and often their decision of what to buy is influenced by the Manufacturers'claims. What would happen if all the motoring organisations and motoring press were each lent a different car from the production line (manufacturers' press cars are often set up differently to those available to the general public) for evaluation, and pooled their findings to result in a more realistic set of figures?
P.S. Congratulations on seeing this as an opportunity to approach an M.P.G. Marathon from a different perspective.
Oddly enough I was thinking exactly the same thing. P.S. Congratulations on seeing this as an opportunity to approach an M.P.G. Marathon from a different perspective.
Cars should be given to a random selection of the driving public to test in real world conditions, with averages taken from the group I reckon.
What was the point in turning up at all? No consideration to the route, a brief excuse for an approach for driving to disguise there was no real thought behind it, you had a dull drive in an otherwise exciting car and achieved the claimed MPG and came 2nd from last. Anything interesting about the rest of the entrants? We don't know because apparently it's not worth mentioning them. Pointless article. If this is motoring journalism I'm going to start blogging my daily commute.
SturdyHSV said:
glazbagun said:
Have I missed something? I thought fuel injection automatically cuts the fuel if you're lifting off in gear, what benefit would come from turning off the engine?
It does, but then you're using the cars forward momentum to turn the engine over, so you slow down quicker.If you put the clutch in, then the engine uses some fuel to idle whilst you coast along.
jontbone said:
Conscript said:
"Despite all this, within minutes I've overtaken three of my fellow competitors who wave us on enthusiastically as they crawl along at 28mph on roads marked as national speed limit."
IN my opinion each competitor should be doing the actual speed limit on each road. 28 in a 60 is potentially dangerous and at best infuriating for other drivers
New game: If you see anyone dawdling, holding-up traffic and inconveniencing everyone else on the road whilst displaying an "MPG test" sticker, deliberately screw it up for them by pulling in front of them and making them stop. Bonus points if you do it whilst they're going uphill. 
TBH I'm pretty disappointed with the Mondeo's figure. I used to get better than that without really trying on a run out of my old (1998) 2.0i Estate. Let alone on a "MPG Marathon"
At a constant 40mph or so (I used to commute via the M42 with its "active management") it was well into the 50's and even 60's.
At a constant 40mph or so (I used to commute via the M42 with its "active management") it was well into the 50's and even 60's.
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