Hypermiling: What is it & how can it help you?

What is hypermiling? Simply put, it’s a method of using simple techniques to get the most mileage out of your car. When hybrids became widely available early in the 21st century, some drivers weren’t satisfied with the EPA ratings of 30 to 45 mpg (48 to 72 km/g). They found that by using sensible driving techniques like slowly accelerating at green lights and coasting to a stop when approaching red lights, some hybrid cars could get as much as 100 mpg (161 km/g) .

­Even drivers of traditionally-powered SUVs can see a notable impact on their vehicles’ fuel economy. An Edmunds experiment found that hyperm­iling could squeeze an extra 35.4 percent more mpg from a Land Rover LR3, which usually gets only 12 mpg (19 km/g) in the city and 17 (27 km/g) on the highway .

Using cruise control is another proven way to greatly reduce fuel consumption. A test carried out by Wayne Gerdes, the man credited with coining the term hypermiling, found that using cruise control at speeds of 30 to 40 mph (40 to 64 km/g) can increase fuel economy by double-digit percentages .

Even NASCAR drivers have come to use hypermiling techniques during times when they must drive at low speeds — when they’re following the pace car during a caution flag. Each driver punches the gas to get the engine to full throttle, turns off his ignition and coasts as far as possible before turning it over again. This improves his fuel economy and saves them an extra time-consuming trip to the pit, a move that could conceivably win the race.

This was the case when NASCAR’s secret — or at least overlooked — use of hypermiling during races came into the spotlight, after Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Lifelock 400 in June 2008 at Michigan International Speedway. The driver was widely criticized for the win, since he’d coasted beyond the pace car several times during caution flags in an effort to hypermile as much as possible. But the driver mentioned after the race that he was hardly the lone hypermiler on the NASCAR circuit: “Everybody’s doing it,” he told reporters . While drivers on the circuit don’t use the word hypermiling, the eco-conscious world bemusedly looked on after news of Earnhardt’s win was published. NASCAR had gone green.

Being the world-class driver that he is, Earnhardt Jr. was more interested in getting the checkered flag than saving the Earth. The circuit isn’t too worried about conserving gas. The estimated 175,000 gallons it uses during race season is all provided free of charge by official sponsor Sunoco . NASCAR has been eco-conscious in the past, though. During the oil embargo in the early 1970s, the racing circuit did its part by reducing the length of some of its races. The Daytona 500, for example, saw only 450 miles driven in the race in 1974 .

Hypermiling wins races, though, as Earnhardt proved. On the highway it takes concentration and discipline; on the NASCAR track hypermiling takes nerves of steel. Drivers have to be long on courage to pass their pit crews without stopping for fuel. If you run out of gas on the track, you’re out of luck. Still, if a driver’s car sputters to a stop on the last lap, at least he can take comfort in knowing that by hypermiling, he’s done something beneficial for the planet.

Maybe it’s a technique you should consider using, no matter what car (or race) you drive in 😀

Enjoy The Silence! (Warning: Very, Very Technical!)

A silencer is a device for reducing the amount of noise emitted by the exhaust of an internal combustion engine.

Silencers are installed within the exhaust system of most internal combustion engines, although the silencer is not designed to serve any primary exhaust function. The silencer is engineered as an acoustic soundproofing device designed to reduce the loudness of the sound pressure created by the engine by way of acoustic quieting. The majority of the sound pressure produced by the engine is emanated out of the vehicle using the same piping used by the silent exhaust gases absorbed by a series of passages and chambers lined with roving fiberglass insulation and/or resonating chambers harmonically tuned to cause destructive interference wherein opposite sound waves cancel each other out. An unavoidable side effect of silencer use is an increase of back pressure which decreases engine efficiency. This is because the engine exhaust must share the same complex exit pathway built inside the silencer as the sound pressure that the silencer is designed to mitigate.

 

Some vehicle owners remove or install an aftermarket silencer when engine tuning in order to increase power output or reduce fuel consumption because of economic or environmental concerns, recreational pursuits such as motorsport and hypermiling and/or for personal aesthetic acoustical preferences.

 

Trade-off between power increase and noise reduction:

When the flow of exhaust gases from the engine to the atmosphere is obstructed to any degree, back pressure arises and the engine’s efficiency, and therefore power, is reduced. Performance-oriented silencers and exhaust systems thus strive to minimize back pressure by employing numerous technologies and methods to attenuate the sound. For the majority of such systems, however, the general rule of “more power, more noise” applies.