What's the furthest you've ever coasted?
Discussion
As in, in a motor vehicle (not an aircraft!) with the engine running (to maintain PAS and brakes) but gearbox in neutral...
I'll start
16 kilometres (about 10 miles) on the island of Pico in the Azores. From the top of a hill that looks suspiciously like it may have been a volcano, down to the road next to the sea, in a Corsa hire car.
Over to you...
I'll start
16 kilometres (about 10 miles) on the island of Pico in the Azores. From the top of a hill that looks suspiciously like it may have been a volcano, down to the road next to the sea, in a Corsa hire car.
Over to you...
Wedg1e said:
As in, in a motor vehicle (not an aircraft!) with the engine running (to maintain PAS and brakes) but gearbox in neutral...
I'll start
16 kilometres (about 10 miles) on the island of Pico in the Azores. From the top of a hill that looks suspiciously like it may have been a volcano, down to the road next to the sea, in a Corsa hire car.
Over to you...
Pretty much all the way from Teide (the volcano) to the coast on Teneriffe. We hired a wheezy fiesta, which struggled to get up to the volcano (tailgated by coaches most of the way), doing about 20mph in second for the whole 30 odd miles, then coasted and braked all the way back.I'll start
16 kilometres (about 10 miles) on the island of Pico in the Azores. From the top of a hill that looks suspiciously like it may have been a volcano, down to the road next to the sea, in a Corsa hire car.
Over to you...
Hire cars in Teneriffe live a very hard life.
Edited by 98elise on Wednesday 24th October 12:54
About 3.5 miles going down Windy Hill (M62 westbound from Junction 22) is a favourite of mine - only if there aren't any other vehicles around though, as the car will be doing around 45mph by the end which isn't acceptable on a motorway in free-flowing traffic...
And about 3 miles somewhere on the A59 heading westbound towards Skipton. No loss of speed (had to use the brakes to rein in the speed
), but it brought both the water and oil temperatures down a little on a hot day.
Ain't hypermiling brilliant??
And about 3 miles somewhere on the A59 heading westbound towards Skipton. No loss of speed (had to use the brakes to rein in the speed
), but it brought both the water and oil temperatures down a little on a hot day.Ain't hypermiling brilliant??
98elise said:
Pretty much all the way from Teide (the volcano) to the coast on Teneriffe. We hired a wheezy fiesta, which struggled to get up to the volcano (tailgated by coaches most of the way), doing about 20mph in second for the whole 30 odd miles, then coasted and braked all the way back.
Hire cars in Teneriffe live a very hard life.
Good effort Hire cars in Teneriffe live a very hard life.
Can't remember exactly how far I coasted but it was a fair way on the A71 French autoroute heading South when I missed the last fuel stop for 80km or so and the fuel light had just come on. It was the middle of the night, we were in the middle of rural France, I knew I would usually get 40 miles from the rest of the tank. Doing the conversion in my head said we wouldn't make it. I didn't bother to wake my sleeping passengers to worry them, adn just hoped we'd make it.
What was worse then was the road started to rise and I started to panic as the car strained (and burned more petrol) dragging its heavy load up one long side of the Auvergne to over 1000 metres. So when we crested I knocked the car into neutral to see how far we could coast and save fuel.
This downhil section went on, and on and on, it seemed like a good 20kms. It may have been shorter but it was a hell of a ride as I let the car run to make the most of the momentum, and only braked when the car hit 120mph!
The three oblivious asleep passengers woke up as we finally pulled in to the services and wondered why I was looking so grey!
My second favourite coasting experience was a regular one at Birdlip, on the A417 just after the Balloon pub when you could let the car roll down the hill almost to the M5 junction and see how fast you could go, you'd only coast for a mile or so, but I remember my old escort getting 87mph with gravity alone, and gliding past a friend in his Nova like we were in go-carts.
What was worse then was the road started to rise and I started to panic as the car strained (and burned more petrol) dragging its heavy load up one long side of the Auvergne to over 1000 metres. So when we crested I knocked the car into neutral to see how far we could coast and save fuel.
This downhil section went on, and on and on, it seemed like a good 20kms. It may have been shorter but it was a hell of a ride as I let the car run to make the most of the momentum, and only braked when the car hit 120mph!
The three oblivious asleep passengers woke up as we finally pulled in to the services and wondered why I was looking so grey!
My second favourite coasting experience was a regular one at Birdlip, on the A417 just after the Balloon pub when you could let the car roll down the hill almost to the M5 junction and see how fast you could go, you'd only coast for a mile or so, but I remember my old escort getting 87mph with gravity alone, and gliding past a friend in his Nova like we were in go-carts.
Wedg1e said:
98elise said:
Pretty much all the way from Teide (the volcano) to the coast on Teneriffe. We hired a wheezy fiesta, which struggled to get up to the volcano (tailgated by coaches most of the way), doing about 20mph in second for the whole 30 odd miles, then coasted and braked all the way back.
Hire cars in Teneriffe live a very hard life.
Good effort Hire cars in Teneriffe live a very hard life.
He got a good 5 mins of earache from my mum for his "antics." As his second beer arrived he revealed the whole no brakes thing. He got to finish that one in silence.
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