Why are Yanks better at M.P.G. than.....

Why are Yanks better at M.P.G. than.....

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Discussion

BLUETHUNDER

Original Poster:

7,881 posts

267 months

Monday 26th May 2008
quotequote all
There european equivalents?.Been using the Ram all wkend driving around the south coast.Its been returning around 23mpg.This is much better than the 19mpg i get from the 4.0V8 LR i have.Same for the Corvette against the Cerbera.I was really pleased with what it returned.One of our stop off,s at the weekend at Horndean in Hampshire for a M.V show.



Mrs Thunder,Baby Thunder, and the Ram.Covered about 200 mls in total.Nice and comfy too.thumbup

ZZR

913 posts

258 months

Tuesday 27th May 2008
quotequote all
BLUETHUNDER said:
There european equivalents?.Been using the Ram all wkend driving around the south coast.Its been returning around 23mpg.This is much better than the 19mpg i get from the 4.0V8 LR i have.Same for the Corvette against the Cerbera.I was really pleased with what it returned.One of our stop off,s at the weekend at Horndean in Hampshire for a M.V show.



Mrs Thunder,Baby Thunder, and the Ram.Covered about 200 mls in total.Nice and comfy too.thumbup
I was down the South Coast (Poole) in my Ram the other weekend and when I got home calculated the MPG at 24mpg over 300 miles(I now know to ignore the fuel computer readout - even when I convert the reading to UK gallons)

LuS1fer

41,753 posts

252 months

Tuesday 27th May 2008
quotequote all
I took my supercharged 2005 Mustang GT for it's MOT this morning and they asked if it was one of those gas guzzlers and their ghasteds were indeed flabbered when I said it did 24mpg on a commute and no worse than 19-20 on a hard thrash and could actually achieve well into the 30's if driven sensibly.

eliot

11,727 posts

261 months

Tuesday 27th May 2008
quotequote all
LuS1fer said:
no worse than 19-20 on a hard thrash
You’re talking about the 450bhp car in your profile? I'm not sure I can believe that MPG figure.

Robbed666

38 posts

216 months

Tuesday 27th May 2008
quotequote all
You better believe it!

I regularly return 30 MPG in mine.
Last trip to the ACE cafe, mixture of motorway, Central London driving (177 mile Round trip), got 34 MPG.

Mine also has a 'hair dryer' fitted as well. Mines a Paxton though, and not one those horrible Vortech affairs! ;-)

Link to MPG thread here http://www.s197.co.uk/s197/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=335&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=mpg&start=30 

Edited by Robbed666 on Tuesday 27th May 22:28


Edited by Robbed666 on Tuesday 27th May 22:30


Edited by Robbed666 on Tuesday 27th May 22:35


Edited by Robbed666 on Tuesday 27th May 22:36


Edited by Robbed666 on Tuesday 27th May 22:38

eliot

11,727 posts

261 months

Tuesday 27th May 2008
quotequote all
Robbed666 said:
You better believe it!
That MPG thread says 8MPG when flooring it, which is what I would expect and the point i was making.

twistedsanity

493 posts

245 months

Wednesday 28th May 2008
quotequote all
could it be that a US gallon is different in volume to a UK gallon?
It's a guess but would the ecu not be using the calculated US gallon for its calculations?

LuS1fer

41,753 posts

252 months

Wednesday 28th May 2008
quotequote all
twistedsanity said:
could it be that a US gallon is different in volume to a UK gallon?
It's a guess but would the ecu not be using the calculated US gallon for its calculations?
The readouts on US dashes is in US mpg which mags over here are often wont to quote. A US gallon is smaller (which also means the cost of a US gallon is less comparable). You may find the figure hard to believe but that's what it is and is verified by the amount of petrol I have to put in for our runs which are usually about 200 miles long ie it's not a case of the readout saying one thing and the tank being empty....

My friend has a 405hp Corvette C5 Z06 and gets similar economy.

I have heard complaints from not only journos but some owners of mpg being as low as 15 but have never been able to replicate that or get enywhere near it. I avoid doing full-bore burnouts and use the throttle as required and not for "showboating" so even a high speed thrash won't involve full throttle for anything more than the road will allow. Oddly enough, I find I use less throttle with the supercharger and the readout stayed the same after fitting the blower as it did before.

Robbed666

38 posts

216 months

Wednesday 28th May 2008
quotequote all
The car doesn't 'know' whether its in UK or US.
A US mile and UK are the same, The ECU has no 'regional
location' setting. The reading are in US gallons.
US pint has 16 fluid ounces, as opposed to 20 for the UK/imperial,
but the US ounces are bigger. So it works out as add 20%.


I cannot get anywhere 8 MPG! lowest I've achive over a short period is about 16 MPG (UK).
This soon rises back up to + 25 MPG (UK.

Also bear in mind as a comparison my wife only gets 21 MPG for her M3 driving sedately.
I can easierly get that into single figures.

The point I'm making is that even on a 'hard thrash' on the public highway it's diffucult to mash the pedal long enough! A instantanous MPG is IMHO is meaningless, an average based on a 'sustained style' of driving is more important. for which 20 MPG + appears to be the norm.

Yes they do call me 'Grandad' , but I do have my moments!

The centrfugal blower type supercharger this is especially true, as the boost is produced further up the rev range. When compared to Roots, screw or vane types. I personally do not want any more torque down the 'bottom end' !!

Therefore with a centrifugal Supercharger when driving off boost, in closed loop mode, the fuel economy is good.

Edited by Robbed666 on Wednesday 28th May 07:54

Tom74

658 posts

237 months

Wednesday 28th May 2008
quotequote all
As a comparison I get about 26 mpg out of my C6 Z06 but around 8 mpg if its had a good day at a track, and that 26 mpg figure does not include any motorway driving.

Economy of these is much better than anyone thinks!

BLUETHUNDER

Original Poster:

7,881 posts

267 months

Wednesday 28th May 2008
quotequote all
I still cant work out why the economy is better on yanks,compared to european models.Both the Ram and the Vette are better fuel wise than the LR 90 and Cerbera.I now choose these if i am going to undertake a long journey.

ZZR

913 posts

258 months

Wednesday 28th May 2008
quotequote all
Maybe the good fuel economy is due to the ability of a large engine to pull high speeds at very low revs, the ram pulls 1700rpm at 70mph in 5th/overdrive, most euro petrol cars will be pulling much higher engine speeds due to a lack of low down torque.

qube_TA

8,405 posts

252 months

Thursday 29th May 2008
quotequote all
American stuff usually has those super overdrive top gears where you can do 80MPH @ 1200RPM instead of the Euro/Jap stuff that have to do 6000RPM to achieve the same speed. Has to make a difference.



BLUETHUNDER

Original Poster:

7,881 posts

267 months

Thursday 29th May 2008
quotequote all
qube_TA said:
American stuff usually has those super overdrive top gears where you can do 80MPH @ 1200RPM instead of the Euro/Jap stuff that have to do 6000RPM to achieve the same speed. Has to make a difference.
Yeah i noticed that.I was doing 70mph at 1100rpm,with the overdrive engaged.Without,it shot upto 2500rpm.I was really impressed.I dont know why i didnt try them years ago.Even had some fella at the show with an inferior Toyota Hi-lux ask,if it was for sale.

thunderbelmont

2,982 posts

231 months

Monday 9th June 2008
quotequote all
Last time I was in the 'States, I had a Grand-Am for the week. With mostly interstate running, it did 39mpg - that's American Gallons of course, with their gallon only 7/8th of an imperial gallon, that works out to : 44.5mph (imperial). Most impressive. OK, it was only the 3.8V6, but my 3L Omega will do 26mpg average, that's it.

Regarding Bluethunder's LR doing 19, is that an EFI lump in there, or one strangled by Strombergs? We have one (LR90/SWB) which we threw a V8 in some years back. It'll do 25+ on the road. It's only running a 3.5, but on SU's and I flowed the heads/manifolds etc.. and used a Rover VDP engine as the original base for it, instead of the strangled factory LR/RR lump.

It's all about utilising the torque to keep it moving, and that's something that Yanks are experts at.

My Omega is on borrowed time, and I'm looking at replacing it, and my works Merc Sprinter with a single vehicle - probably a Suburban. I was talking to a guy who has one of the new generation Sub's with one of Chevy's new V8 diesel, and he's getting 32MP(us)G out of it on average, that works out better than any LR/RR Diesel ever! And it's ever so slightly bigger.


Matt Harper

6,770 posts

208 months

Monday 9th June 2008
quotequote all
Suburban? ....in a thread about fuel economy?
Does not compute.
My Vortec powered 2006 1500LT does 16mpg AVERAGE.
In terms of fuel economy, it blows.

LuS1fer

41,753 posts

252 months

Monday 9th June 2008
quotequote all
Matt Harper said:
Suburban? ....in a thread about fuel economy?
Does not compute.
My Vortec powered 2006 1500LT does 16mpg AVERAGE.
In terms of fuel economy, it blows.
That's 19.2 UK mpg - for a 4 door barn, that's not bad at all. Not good but we've seen worse - like 9mpg from a Range Rover.

BLUETHUNDER

Original Poster:

7,881 posts

267 months

Monday 9th June 2008
quotequote all
thunderbelmont said:
Last time I was in the 'States, I had a Grand-Am for the week. With mostly interstate running, it did 39mpg - that's American Gallons of course, with their gallon only 7/8th of an imperial gallon, that works out to : 44.5mph (imperial). Most impressive. OK, it was only the 3.8V6, but my 3L Omega will do 26mpg average, that's it.

Regarding Bluethunder's LR doing 19, is that an EFI lump in there, or one strangled by Strombergs? We have one (LR90/SWB) which we threw a V8 in some years back. It'll do 25+ on the road. It's only running a 3.5, but on SU's and I flowed the heads/manifolds etc.. and used a Rover VDP engine as the original base for it, instead of the strangled factory LR/RR lump.

It's all about utilising the torque to keep it moving, and that's something that Yanks are experts at.

My Omega is on borrowed time, and I'm looking at replacing it, and my works Merc Sprinter with a single vehicle - probably a Suburban. I was talking to a guy who has one of the new generation Sub's with one of Chevy's new V8 diesel, and he's getting 32MP(us)G out of it on average, that works out better than any LR/RR Diesel ever! And it's ever so slightly bigger.
The LR is this model.......



4.0 efi V8 50th Anniversary.

thunderbelmont

2,982 posts

231 months

Tuesday 10th June 2008
quotequote all
BLUETHUNDER said:
thunderbelmont said:
Last time I was in the 'States, I had a Grand-Am for the week. With mostly interstate running, it did 39mpg - that's American Gallons of course, with their gallon only 7/8th of an imperial gallon, that works out to : 44.5mph (imperial). Most impressive. OK, it was only the 3.8V6, but my 3L Omega will do 26mpg average, that's it.

Regarding Bluethunder's LR doing 19, is that an EFI lump in there, or one strangled by Strombergs? We have one (LR90/SWB) which we threw a V8 in some years back. It'll do 25+ on the road. It's only running a 3.5, but on SU's and I flowed the heads/manifolds etc.. and used a Rover VDP engine as the original base for it, instead of the strangled factory LR/RR lump.

It's all about utilising the torque to keep it moving, and that's something that Yanks are experts at.

My Omega is on borrowed time, and I'm looking at replacing it, and my works Merc Sprinter with a single vehicle - probably a Suburban. I was talking to a guy who has one of the new generation Sub's with one of Chevy's new V8 diesel, and he's getting 32MP(us)G out of it on average, that works out better than any LR/RR Diesel ever! And it's ever so slightly bigger.
The LR is this model.......



4.0 efi V8 50th Anniversary.
Aha, a "Sloane Ranger" version of a LR! Ours is a classic agricultural dog kennel - pickup with canvas top on the back = dramatic drag! A few dents, an that lovely shade of flat dark green. It looks like a 2.1/4 petrol (because it was) but sounds.. mmm mmmmmmmm.

Now then... Suburban, fuel "economy", I did mention the new diesel variant. However, I am considering the newer Vortec powered jobby as it's a flexfuel engine. Yep, barn on wheels. And I need a barn to store my works tools, etc..

Afroman

155 posts

197 months

Wednesday 11th June 2008
quotequote all
My 2006 Pontiac GTO gets on average 21 mpg with a 40/60 city/highway driving. US mpg though. Roads in the US suck.