Attempt at 2,2 li/100 km, on a full tank 1000+ km

[Serge]

I have recently been taken hostage by a couple of obsessive maniacs of FE. In the US they call them Hypermilers. To be different why not call them HE (hyper-economizers). So now, to be liberated, I must do my homework which consist in finding the lowest fuel consumption (FC) for a standard non-modified Smart car. The goal of 2,2 li/100 seem attainable, even if difficult considering my best short distance (318km) record of 2,77 li/100 last december 22.So, how far down is it possible to go ? One would say there is no limits. The more we are close to a possible limit, the most difficult it is to improve by a tiny percentage. So I will stay 10% from the possible extreme limit. (10% of 2,2 is so little, just 0,2 li/100)The rules are as follow:- Non-modified car.- Round trip.- No tricks like unidirectional tail wind.- Long distance (full tank).

[Serge]

First test :

Today I decided to verify the feasibility of this goal on a shorter distance and also to test my new improved pedal. I added a fake pedal over the original one that moves 2 cm while the original one moves 1 cm, and I also added a hand lever trottle that moves 10 cm for one cm on the pedal. This allow to control the engine load very accurately.

Well I didn't succeed but there is room for improvement. I got 2,35 li/100 on a 388 km return trip.

Here are the details :

Return trip St-Jean-Port-Joli to Plessisville and back.

Rural roads with so many stops (I counted 55), 14 red lights and many low speed turns.

No wind or so little changing directions mostly NE.

Temperature 10°C at the start and 20°C on arrival.

First blob extinct at 280 km. on normal fillup.

Scangage 2 gave the following:

Going: 2.1 li/100, 4.4li, 202 km, 3.7 hres, 76 max speed, 53 avg speed.

Return: 2.2 li/100, 4.4li, 190 km, 3.4 hres, 88 max speed, 54 avg speed.

Load was an avg 44% going and a little higher return.

The real pen and paper gave : 2,35 li/100 for 9.1 li and 388 km , 120 MPG

Room for improvement:

To make it down to 2.2 , I will have to improve somewhat or somewhere. First I will try to avoid half of these low speed turns (in 3rd to 5th gear), red lights and stops, by going on the highway , and returning by rural roads. I will have to do this early on a sunday morning to avoid traffic.

Second I will add pressure to the tires. They were at 28.5 psi this morning.

Conclusion: Anyone ready for the challenge ? No ? Too bad..... or too good.... because this is really obsessive mania !

Well anyway I will give some follow up on the next sunday without any wind.... may take some times.

[MikeT]

Good work!May I suggest doing a |Super|Fill| of 27+ litres first? Then you would smash the 1000 km barrier without any problem. In fact, you would smash 1100 km, even at 2.35 L/100 km!Please join up at GasSavers.org! I am there, but my smart fuel consumption is a joke at just under 3.9 L/100 km. You would impress them a lot.I am glad that you folks are doing this, because I don't have the time or patience to go after FE records! We all benefit from your results (bragging rights).

[smartzuuk]

Well, Serge, you certainly will give me a renewed enthusiasm once my smart returns to me.But about your rules - isn't the pedal a 'modification'? Cruise control should also help if you use it correctly.Tire pressure - fill it with nitrogen to the max sidewall PSI. That will get you serious improvement. You should hit 2.2 without much trouble on the same run.I'm not at all surprised at 2.35, I know that better is possible....Fresh oil change, fresh ATF change... narrower wheels on rear, you know all the stuff....

[Duck]

Gah! I want to see your throttle control! Pictures?!Serge your consumption makes me feel so dirty and wasteful lol-Iain

[danno]

G'day, Serge. Thanks for the details of your endeavour. I'd like to be able to try the same this summer, but it would require travelling to somewhere less hilly than my area. Your detailed descriptions are appreciated.

[Hammer Smart]

Does fuel additives like the Prestone or Milligans (I always want to say mulligans! ) Count as cheating?

[Serge]

Mike T : Super fill

I will do a kind of super fill on my final attempt ... some next windless sunday... May be not the Eddie's-jack-up-SuperFill.....

Antoine is there on GasSavers.org ! He is the hypermiler part of the team ! I might put the final results under his pseudonyme.

I am not a maniac of records myself. It is more scientifically oriented as to know better what elements make consumption figures fluctuate. To know better we have to push to the extreme sometimes. And then resume to normal driving ..... I hope so...

Smartzuuk : About modifications

Yes I know, this new pedal apparatus is a modification like cruise control anyway. I agree with all modifications (all the stuff...you say) but for the purpose of this test I wanted the car to be the closest possible to the original car. Increasing tire pressure is not standard either, but since most FE oriented people do it even without telling, it is a necessity for comparaison purpose. I might even take off the wipers even if I don't see any noticeable increase in FE, but just because I don't like the noise they make under wind.

I have a doubt about cruise control. I beleive it is perfect on long flat road to maintain regular speed without fluctuations on the pedal, but in hilly conditions the amplitude given to correct the speed fast will spend more fuel. On the contrary, my hand lever trottle allows me to anticipate a hill and give more engine load accordingly and let the speed fluctuate for a better use of fuel. Moreover on rural winding roads with so many turns and stops, cruise control would be out most of the time. Actually, my lever allows to keep a regular engine load , let's say for example 42 on SG2. It is so difficult to keep a regular pressure on the pedal and moving the pedal 1mm means fluctuation of LOD from 42 to 46. This pedal by wire has not been built specifically for the smart car since the engine load use only a quarter of the amplitude of the pedal from 0 to 99 % load.

I beleive better than 2.35 is possible on better roads. I would have to move to flat Saskatchewan !!! Or else take the highway. Having to stop so many times yesterday and even going thru two road construction sites, made it very difficult to keep 2.2 on scangage.

Duck : trottle control

Un canard n'est jamais sale dans son étang. Untill yesterday 21:16 eastern time, I thought you were the cleanest prodigal son of all ducks known to me.

I will try to take picture of my trottle control. In words it is a fake pedal over the original one, having the same hinge at the base but being 5 cm away at the top. it protude over the original and is linked by a nylon string to a small pulley behind the pedal. The pulley diminishes the amplitude by half. It is kind of ugly for the first try ( make the picture shy to be publish on the forum), but so efficient that I might make a permanent alu one.

It serves two purposes : 1- Better trottle control by moving with more amplitude than the original, and 2- half the pressure necessary on the pedal, pressure I complained about here last summer.

The hand lever is even more accurate moving 10 cm for a 1 cm movement of the pedal.

*********************************************

Yes danno, hills are FE killers ! Well Hammer smart, since the Holy B. ( well I forgot the exact title of that book ) doesn't say a word about mulligans as a cheating fluid, do as you like and have the blessing of the hypermilers.

[Serge]

Gah! I want to see your throttle control! Pictures?!

[Duck]

Don't be shy, what you're doing is incredible! You are rewriting what is possible with this car. I love your setup, wowowow!! Fantastique! :PBefore I bought cruise control, I'd considered various ways (including a setup out of LEGO Mindstorms, haha) of controlling the foot pedal.-Iain

[smartzuuk]

I must have missed what you said - hand lever, wowzers.... so is it like cruise control also - can you leave it in position? You must address for me the safety of such a manual device too... is there a risk that you leave it on?Hand lever... hmm........

[Dang]

Very cool.....on the cruise....I'm not sure it's going to be the best on a fuel economy attempt. I find it tends to use a "constant adjustment" type of mode where the logic is something like:Apply throttle, car now above set speed.Reduce throttle, car now below set speed. Repeat forever.With the real time fuel economy display of the MDC computer you can see this hunting back and forth, though not so much in the speed of the car. (it's subtle). I suspect you could do better with your foot, and certainly better with the controls you built. Of course that requires a lot of patience over a long period to keep it steady, so from that point of view I can see its a lot easier to use the cruise.Good luck in your attempts! Dang

[Serge]

My lever trottle is --I beleive-- like the fast idle button on trucks. Its purpose is to depress the pedal very accurately and keep it there, or adjust manually for a perfect engine load according to road conditions. It may act like a cruise control but it is not a self-adjusting cruise control. It doesn't control the speed but the pedal at a fixed point. I can also use the pedal at the same time.

Yes there is a risk for safety because it stays on as long as we don't pull back the lever. But it is not that bad since I forgot it on a couple of times and, on braking, I didn't even saw a difference, except that the transmission changed gears and the car re-accelerated lightly on leaving the brake pedal. I wouldn't suggest it to anyone in normal driving, sure not in city driving. It is usefull only on FE challenges. It is a temporary set-up ... but...... I like it so much that I might make a permanent one.

There are side benefits, like less «fatigue» for the foot and leg (like a cruise), and a very regular trottle, unlike the unstability generated by the low amplitude pedal. For fuel economy purposes, it is far superior to a cruise control, but for the peace of mind, a cruise is better. Dang's previous comment says it all. I agree 100%.

Hey Smartzuuk what is a wowzer ? Webster says ... wowser = in Australia, a person who is puritanical, as in his objections to sunday amusement or sports.

[ValgardForkbeard]

Hey Smartzuuk what is a wowzer ? Webster says ... wowser = in Australia, a person who is puritanical, as in his objections to sunday amusement or sports.

Wowzer is also an expression used by Inspector Gadget to indicate surprise or awe.

MG

[smartzuuk]

I'll take the Australian meaning! ;-)

[Serge]

Thanks Valgard and let's forget about australian puritanical SZ. Sunday is for amusements and sports. HE (Hyper-Écono) like it. .... ... but let's also forget hand lever trottle this weekend since météo announces 2°C in the morning with a bad NW wind. Viva la bicicletta

[Serge]

Basjoos copied my idea for the same reasons..... foot pedal ! Am I having children south of the border ?

http://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=3583

[MikeT]

basjoos will do ANYTHING for 1/10th of an MPG. His car is....uh bizarre! Congrats on convincing him to copy the idea.

[ARTZ]

I am assuming that he only uses the hand lever when he gets up to crusing speed, because I'm think that it would be quite hard to drive a standard transmission with a hand lever.

[Serge]

Yes you're right about manual transmission, the engine would over-rev on changing gear while in neutral. On a smart there is no problem since the computer changes the gears... so I use it from first to 6th.

[Duck]

You must look closer.

I think he's got a tube-within-a-tube so he can over-ride by pressing the pedal manually.

...of course I beat both of you to this solution with my cruise control a year and a half ago

-Iain

[100MPGUS]

Is that model ekin ria?

You must look closer.

I think he's got a tube-within-a-tube so he can over-ride by pressing the pedal manually.

...of course I beat both of you to this solution with my cruise control a year and a half ago

-Iain

[Duck]

I have no idea what that means, lolI tried some experiments today, and the lowest average (over maybe 15 km) I could get down to was 2.8. :/I dunno where the other 0.6 comes from.-Iain

[bilgladstone]

I have no idea what that means, lol

sdrawkcab ti daeR

[Serge]

No good weather this w-e, but tried today with 44 tire pressure. Little to moderate tail wind and on the highway at 60 kmh, I got an impressive 1,9 li/100. But on the way back some strong head wind put it down at 2,7 on rural roads. Average 2,33 li/100, on 175 km. Well not yet 2,2.... have to wait another w-e of nicer weather.Duck, you're shoe lever would necessitate many size of shoes ( pointures).