Steve 96C4S

"What is hypermiling? According to a a fantastic August 2006 story in the Washington Post, it is a method of increasing your car's gas mileage by making skillful changes in the way you drive, allowing you to save gas and thereby have an easier time withstanding the rising oil and gas prices."

http://www.hypermiling.com/

So I'm listening to a story on NPR the other day while in my 993 and they're talking about a guy getting 100+ MPG in his Honda Insight. He gets upset if he doesn't get over 100 MPG on each tank of gas and only fills up once a month. He tries to park at the edge of a parking lot (like we do anyway) so he doesn't have to back out (uses more MPG). He tried to judge the traffic lights to save MPG as braking wastes fuel. He puts his car in neutral going down hills sometimes to save MPG (not totally safe, I know). He tries drafting behind large trucks to save fuel (not that safe either if you're not careful). He drives 45 instead of 55 sometimes to save 17% fuel (not that safe on most highways). Generally, he tries to drive under the speed limit to save fuel.

I thought about some of these things and have tried to do some of them just as a test. I'm not real comfortable doing most of these things, but judging lights a bit better for less total stops is one I've tried. Sometimes I'll coast to a stop at a traffic light in neutral instead of a gear to save miniscule MPG if I feel it's safe.

Has anyone else heard about hypermiling and applied it much in their 993's or other cars? Just curious. It's kind of cool, getting 100mpg, though you'd have to have an Insight to do this kind of mileage. They were saying you could get 35 mpg instead of a rated 25 mpg for an SUV if you hypermiled a bit. They have forums just like ours bragging about how amazing their mileage was on a tank of gas and listing additional tips to save MPG.

It's almost ludicrous in a way for me as a 993 owner to hypermile, as the fun I get from the car driving it hard is a blast. But, sometimes I get curious about what better mileage I could get if I tried some of these techniques after just spending $75 or so at the pump (I know, that's probably cheap for you folks outside of the USA!). Plus, I use it now as my daily driver so I put alot of miles on it, and use alot of gas in the process.

Cheers,
Steve R

>> The first step toward saving gas and increasing mpg: Always know your gas mileage after each visit to the gas pump.

>> The second step: do you drive agressively but not know it?

>> The third step: How long are you sitting still at red lights? Video

>> The fourth step: Keeping yourself moving in traffic congestion

>> The fifth step: Slowly accelerate after stops

>> The sixth step: Your cruise control saves gas (but not by using it they way you might think)

These Insight owners are probably having the last laugh in their ultra high mileage cars these days! To bad they stopped making them 2 years ago...

Deadeye

Do you live to drive or drive to live?

Bearclaw

Mostly I drive in order to live.

I do this to a certain extent in my daily driver (not the Porsche). I think a lot more people drive with the "egg on the accelerator" these days. But I don't do it in the Porsche, the days I drive it are the days to cut loose and not worry about that stuff. Who knows how many of those days we have left?

I do think that vehicles that that are built for mileage (like an Insight) are much more sensitive to those subtle changes, and therefore would show much more benefit by doing them. A Porsche, not so much.

95 C4 993

I have NEVER paid attention to gas milage on any vehicle. Its all relative in my world.

Working out of the house for past 11 years or so saves me hundreds in gas each month and I get a $400 a month car allowance. I probably dont spend more than $200 a month on gas so driving costs me nothing but the normal wear and tear associated with driving.

murfysflaw

I tried a good amount of things in my Grand Cherokee which gets under 14 MPG consistently. Even when going to what I felt was pretty extreme... I got just under 14 MPG. I suspect some cars will be more impacted by this type of effort than others though.

David in LA

Having gotten used to paying $5-6/gallon over the past 10 years since moving to Hong Kong the current price of $8 isn't that much of an increase percentage-wise. If I were still in the U.S. I think I would have harder time paying $4-5/gallon now after being spoiled and paying less than $2/gallon not that long ago.

The cost of having a car in Hong Kong is so expensive (cost of gas, import duty (i.e. new 997 turbo is freakin' US$350k), carpark rentals at apartments are $300-$400/mo, at work $400-600/mo, there is no such thing as free street parking...all street parking is metered!) that gas mileage doesn't really make a difference once you decide you are going to own a car.

ca993twin

Of all the mileage tips, the one that makes the most sense is trying to time stop lights so you don't have to bring your car to a full stop. Its bringing that mass back up to speed that uses the most fuel. This actually affects heavy cars more than light cars, and cars that get really crappy mileage benefit more than little econo boxes that already get great mileage. For a car to be able to improve from 12 mpg to 15 mpg makes a much larger difference than that Honda Insight going from 90mpg to 100 mpg.

There's nothing wrong with trying to drive intelligently, even in a high performance car, to save a bit of fuel. Its less the dollars than the fact that we are flat-*** running out of fuel, and our petro dollars are going to the wrong people.

993_Pilot

IMO, "Hypermiling" in any Porsche is totally missing the point of owning one in the first place !!!

Just for easy math . . .

If you drive 14,000 miles/yr. and your car gets 20 mpg you will burn 700 gallons/yr.
If gas cost $5.00/gallon, 700 gallons will cost $3500.

If you drive 14,000 miles/yr. and your car gets 28 mpg you will burn 500 gallons/yr.
If gas cost $5.00/gallon, 500 gallons will cost $2500.

I don't know about you, but I think it is worth $1000/yr. more to drive normally and enjoy my 993. If I really wanted to "hypermile", I would buy an Insight, Prius or something similar. So no, I don't do it in my 993. . . although I do use 6th gear for cruising on the highway . . . does that count ?

With that being said, I do think it is cool that people can get that kind of mileage in a car and I applaud their effort to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

jdistefa

I'm just skipping hot showers & meals instead.

ca993twin

Jeff,

To continue your example for the Honda Insight going from 90MPG to 100 MPG:

14K miles/year @ 90 MPG = 155 gallons @ $5/gal = $778
14k miles/year @100 MPG = 140 gallons @ $5/gal = $700

So, hypermiling that Insight will net him 15 gallons per year, for a savings of $78. Hypermiling an Econo box is not quite pointless, but you get my drift.

matt777

This is a fun hobby for those who enjoy being frugal. I doubt that too many P car drivers fall into this category. I had a VW Golf TDI in '02. It was great getting 45 mpg in the city. It was the most boring car I ever owned and I sold it after a year.

JasonF

I gotta tell you, there's nothing worse than having a Prius pull in front of me as I'm about to open up the 993 on a back country road. The notion of hypermiling a 993 is comical, and the only time I pay attention to my gas gauge is when it's nearing empty. Driving my 993 in a spirited manner is one of my favorite things to do (or an inexcusable fault for a hypermiler) and there are exhaustive threads on this board about the dangers of lugging the engine.

TMc993

It has clearly been illustrated that while worldwide consumption of oil has increased significantly, it has also been confirmed that a very significant part of the price spike is driven by speculators. If the people in this country had their **** together they would ban together and in a concerted effort, could easily cut consumption of oil by 20-25% without significantly affecting their collective quality of life. The effect would be to reduce consumption, albeit temporarily, which would increase supply, which would reduce the profits taken by inverstors and therefore dampen their ardor with regard to oil as a good investment. But we, as a country, will probably never, ever get our **** together again on anything, and therefore will continue to allow these leeches to bleed us dry.

On a similar note, after reading the current issue of Road & Track, I wonder what the hell anyone (Including Porsche) is thinking promoting electric cars, trucks and buses as a green solution to our climatic problems. Their latest research shows that 20% of our greenhouse gases come from automotive consumption of petroleum and a whopping 80% comes from production and consumption of electricity. So, now we are "solving" this problem by building cars that will increase the production of electricity, already the largest contributor of greenhouse gases.

This ranks right up there with ethenol as a solution for the oil consumption issue....Dumbasses!

There...Whew!...I feel better...Thanks...Here's your thread back.

Terry

jdistefa

I drive an '04 TDI Jetta wagon as a d/d. I put decent tires on it, plus Koni adjustable shocks and lowering springs. Fixes the incipient "North American" suspension tuning that VW seems to foist on us, and makes it a decent car for practicing momentum . And it is awfully nice to get 1000km per tank.

jdistefa

Terry,

I agree.

Here's a good approach for you:

1) Get in your 993
2) Put right foot to floor
3) Feel better