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Blog Entry 181 of 354 I'm Brian Olson and I approved this Blog.
Politics to life in general, a view from a slightly right of center/off-kilter guy.

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~BrianBlog

Friday Beefs and Bouquets-MPG Edition
Contributed by: Brian Olson   on 6/20/2008

Ok, the end of my "See how much I can increase my fuel mileage because of what I learned from Dale Earnhardt Jr" week.

This all started this past Sunday watching the NASCAR race at Michigan. Dale Earndardt Jr won the race not on speed, but on fuel management. He employed a lot of tricks to essentially give himself 12 miles worth of gas that he didn't have.

By going slower he won the race, running out of gas as he got the checkered flag. His main gas saving tool was his right foot and the gas pedal. And some coasting. But he was first across the finish line and took the checkered.

He eased off the gas earlier going into turns, and got on the gas later coming out of turns. And instead of mashing the gas pedal, he smoothly accelerated.

I commute 26 miles each way between Highlands Ranch and Lakewood, the commute takes me about 30 minutes each way on average because the bulk of it is on C-470. I could take RTD, but it would add at least 3-4 hours to my total commute time. And that simply put, is a waste of time.

RTD doesn't work for me. Nor would it save me any money, especially factoring in the value of my time. And it's very valuable.

Using the computer on my Volvo XC-70 Turbo Wagon, my average MPG used to be in the 22-23 range.

So this week I worked hard on the careful use of my right foot and accelerator. I gently eased on the gas instead of mashing it. That avoids the turbo cutting in, which really provides power, but at the expense of mileage. Plus I slowed down my average speed by about 5 MPH. (I'm still speeding in most zones, but not by as much)

I also coasted when ever I could. Cruise control is great if you're travelling across Kansas or Nebraska which is nice and flat. Here in Colorado there are always hills. And when the cruise control cuts in, it tends to mash the gas. So it was right foot, and life in the right lane all the way. And I gave myself much more distance between me and the cars ahead of me. When you have to slow down often, it means you have to hit the gas more often. Keeping an average of one car length for every 10 MPH also made a big difference.

Here's how I did:

Monday:
Highlands Ranch to Lakewood: 26.9 MPG
Lakewood to Highlands Ranch: 29.2 MPG

Tuesday:
Highlands Ranch to Lakewood: 28.9 MPG
Lakewood to Highlands Ranch: 28.8 MPG (With AC)

Wednesday:
Highlands Ranch to Lakewood: 28.3 MPG
Lakewood to Highlands Ranch: 29.0 MPG (Although it was 82 degrees I opted not to use AC for the trip home. If it's around 80 or less, no AC for me.

Thursday:
Highlands Ranch to Lakewood: 28.0 MPG.
Lakewood to Highlands Ranch: 28.8 MPG (With AC)

Friday:
Highlands Ranch to Lakewood: 28.8 MPG

Avg MPG (according to my car computer) was 28.52 mpg.
Avg MPG (based on mileage and fuel used) was 29.15! WOO-HOO!

What I learned:
By going slower, and being a lot more careful with my right foot plus coasting whenever I could, I increased my gas mileage by about 20%! And my average commute time didn't change by more than a minute or so. I went slower to go just as fast.

Since last Saturday morning, I went back and forth to DIA from Highlands Ranch twice, plus commuted between the Ranch and Lakewood 4 1/2 days and used 14.34 gallons of gas.

So I'm giving myself a huge bouquet for finding a way to significantly save money, and a beef as well for not doing this sooner. But thanks to Dale Jr and NASCAR, I'm enjoying life in the right lane and better mileage than most hybrids available right now.

Sorry to break this to you, but government isn't going to help. the GopDem government is broken and could care less about us. Neither McCain or Obama have the cajones, the brains or leadership of an FDR, or a Kennedy or a Reagan to truly galvanize us into making us truly energy independant.

We need to both drill and develop new sources of energy. Today. Not either/or but both.

I'm sticking with my Volvo until at least 2009 when the 2nd generation of hybrid cars comes along. I won't even think about depending on RTD because it's horribly mis-managed, over budget, behind schedule and not likely to be much help to me in my lifetime. Plus it's going to get more expensive and even less convenient because they're actually cutting service!

So it's up to us, each and everyone, to find ways to save. Whatever you hear in campaign ads about all this is crap, pure crap and nothing but crap. Forgotten the day after the election.

Good luck to us all.

Site o' the week.
Americorps is a domestic version of The Peace Corps. And they've been doing wonderful work helping with the flood efforts in the midwest. They deserve our thanks, and more importantly our donations.

Finally, as always, a shout out to everyone at FOP Falcon, the gang at OB68 with a tip of the hat to Weldon Smoothly and of course, our sponsors at Canadian Widget.




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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Brian Olson

Highlands Ranch , CO

Brian Olson has posted 354 blog entries and 15 comments since joining on 11/30/2007. Brian Olson 's average blog rating is 4.74.
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