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Can you beat this?

rouar said:
I HAVE often been stuck behind people doing 45, and there's always a wall of cars to your left when this happens (since everybody behind you is moving to the left to pass). On rare occasions I have resorted to cutting off cars, just to pass the guy doing 45.
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Do those people get back into the right lane after they pass, or do they continue to stick in the left lane afterward?

I think a lot of people don't look far enough down the road when they're driving. If I see I'm gaining on someone, I get over to the left lane far before I'm up on their ass, and then I'm past them and in front of them in no time.

I don't find people doing 45 to be a road problem. I find people that can't control their vehicles well enough not to hit them are the problems.
 
Still trying to burn this tank up. :blackeye: It could be awhile! I have to hit 500 miles before the gas light comes on or I will have no shot at hitting 600.

As for the engine braking "must be avoiding at all costs" comment, while getting off the freeway I just coast in 5th as striker said instead of dropping it to neutral right away. What the heck does that hurt? Nothing except the good fact of letting the clutch disengage at around 1200 rpms instead of 2500+ at the top of the offramp. I rarely drop it through the gears braking to a near complete stop. Even if I did, all it takes is a little rev of the engine which has no load to match the rpms causing no more wear than daily driving. While engine braking, it is just the inertia of the vehicle keeping the motor alive. Sure it may still spray some fuel at lower rpms and what not, (never datalogged it on my xcal in a Contour), but I KNOW it burns more fuel coasting at idle; and with keeping it in gear, why not just leave it in until you have to pull it out?

As for the possibility of running the car out of gas, it will do zero damage to the fuel pump unless you freaken wire up the fuel pump to stay constantly on while no gas is going through it! If any junk is on the bottom of the tank, that is why the fuel pump has its own filter as well as the fuel filter inline between it and the engine. When flying around corners, hitting rough roads and having the gas splish splashing around the tank, you are at the same risk of sucking something up. Does the guy that worries about sucking up crap when gas is low actually think that everything sits on the very bottom of the tank and never splashes up and around during driving? If anyone actually burns a fuel pump while driving low on gas trying to get sweet gas mileage, just pm me and I'll send you a lifetime full of fuel pumps. I have over 6 or 7 of them in my garage. :)


Happy slow cruising everyone. :)


Reebs
 
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frenchblueC2 said:
Do those people get back into the right lane after they pass, or do they continue to stick in the left lane afterward?

I think a lot of people don't look far enough down the road when they're driving. If I see I'm gaining on someone, I get over to the left lane far before I'm up on their ass, and then I'm past them and in front of them in no time.

I don't find people doing 45 to be a road problem. I find people that can't control their vehicles well enough not to hit them are the problems.
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exactly, most people are not "fluid" when they drive. I have followed friends that will come right up on someone and have to slow down and then they pull over to go around. If you are watching far enough ahead one can fluidly change lanes and go around another car and resume tavel in the right lane.

like this morning I was already braking before the person in front of me because of garbage in the middle of the road because I was watching more then 8 cars ahead and saw the brake lights.
 
BrApple said:
exactly, most people are not "fluid" when they drive. I have followed friends that will come right up on someone and have to slow down and then they pull over to go around. If you are watching far enough ahead one can fluidly change lanes and go around another car and resume tavel in the right lane.
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Most often the scenario occurs when someone gets on the highway right in front of me.

Otherwise, I will slow down at times for a car in front of me, but usually it is because there is already traffic on my left and I am unsure if someone is in my blind spot.
 
"how is engine braking bad? if your worried about damage to the clutch from downshifting, know that every time you down shift you lose the whole point of engine braking. your best option is to leave it in whatever gear you are in and then put in neutral once the RPMs reach about 1000, which should be close to being stopped."


You didn't read my post correctly, striker2. I was poking gentle fun at the bad spelling; breaking vs braking. Get it? Engine breaking is bad, engine braking is cool.
c
 
carlover said:
"how is engine braking bad? if your worried about damage to the clutch from downshifting, know that every time you down shift you lose the whole point of engine braking. your best option is to leave it in whatever gear you are in and then put in neutral once the RPMs reach about 1000, which should be close to being stopped."


You didn't read my post correctly, striker2. I was poking gentle fun at the bad spelling; breaking vs braking. Get it? Engine breaking is bad, engine braking is cool.
c
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LOL. I missed that :troutslap: for me :laugh::laugh:
 
blind829 said:
Your right Reebs, it is really relaxing taking things a little slower. At first it was just annoying but when you get passed the fact that you don't have to keep up with everybody it's really nice. I just filled up and I'll see what I can do. How much gas do you think engine breaking saves? I would think it would be more economical just to throw it in neutral and break. You wouldn't wear out your clutch ($$$) as fast too.
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I find driving slower (meaning the speed limit) to be extremely annoying and some times very nerve racking. Ever since gas hit $4 a gallon, I've totally changed my driving habits and it's making me nuts. I'm shifting at 2500 to 3000 and I have to drive more carefully than before......that's right, more carefully. I am doing the speed limit on cruise and getting passed by everything on the freakin road. It's a crap shoot at entrance ramps since nobody can read anymore. No one understands what the word "Yield" means. They just barrel onto the freeway and pity the fool who can't move over because some azzhole is passing them at 70 or 75. So I end up yielding. Plus I'm trying to keep a reasonable distance away from the clown in front of me cause I'm sick of all the dings on my bumper and mirko. Course that also means that when someone passes me, their duty is to pull in front of me as quickly as humanly possible even though they're PASSING ME. Oh yeah, one more thing, try getting into the left lane to avoid the holes and ripples in the right lane several places between home and work. That's a hoot and a half.

Driving the speed limit is a dying art. Like someone said earlier, I swear people are driving faster. Or maybe they're getting better mileage in their SUV's than I am. Ha! Which BTW has never been better than 28.5 mpg. The only way I'd get 35 mpg is to drop my car out of a plane.
 
i dunno...with normal highway driving (average speed of about 60) i've gotten up to 30mpg, or atleast that's what the trip computer says. I know gas is expensive but i'm certainly not going to change my driving style to get better mileage. the inconvenience is not worth it to me.


EDIT: as far as engine braking...a lot of people say this causes permature piston ring wear and all other kinda of BS. I've personally always downshifted when slowing down, both for engine braking and so i'm in the right gear should i have to accelerate again. and if you look at cars like the m5/6/anything with an SMG, the cars blip the throttle and downshift when you're slowing down, so i'm sure it can't be all that bad.
 
I have made light changes to my driving habits lately and have seen the car hit 430 miles at best (Cougar with SVT mods not including cams). I was averaging 31-32 MPG most of that run. I used to be getting around 320 lol.
 
Reebs said:
Still trying to burn this tank up. :blackeye: It could be awhile! I have to hit 500 miles before the gas light comes on or I will have no shot at hitting 600.
Reebs
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Since this tank is pretty much shot (if this is the tank you had a 100mph highway run to pick up your wife) why don't you just refill it and start over?:shrug:
 
dannimarieiro said:
i only get 280 miles(450 kms) is that bad for a svt ??and how do you figure out how many gallons to a tank??
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hell, I average 260 miles but i only put in about 11 gallons.

to calculate MPG, divide miles driven since last fill up by how many gallons it took to fill it up. so in my case, 260/11=23.636 MPG. not all that great IMO.
 
dannimarieiro said:
i only get 280 miles(450 kms) is that bad for a svt ??and how do you figure out how many gallons to a tank??
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The tank is something like 15 gallons. The issue has been debated before, but just say it's 15+/-0.5 So, if you are filling up when the light comes on (~13 gallons), and only going 280 miles, that's 21.5 MPG. It's not great, but not the worst I've heard of. It depends on how and where you are driving it.
 
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