----Original Message Follows----
>From: Michael Kuriger <michael@isuzu-mods.com>
>Reply-To: dakota-truck@buffnet.net
>To: dakota-truck@buffnet.net
>Subject: Re: DML: fuel economy
>Date: Mon, 06 Nov 2000 13:46:31 -0800
>I took a trip from L.A. to Mesa, AZ this weekend in my durango. for the
>first 1/2 of the trip I bit the bullet and went 55 MPH. I also did not
>rev the motor over 2000 RPM. I got 26 MPG. The rest of the trip I >went
>about 80 MPH (75 MPH speed limit) and I got 17 MPG. Why such a >big
>difference?
Putting it simply (only simply because of my understanding not yours), it
takes more energy to move the vehicle 80 MPH than 55. Now I don't know how
scientific this is but 17 MPG is around 65% of 26 MPG (or 35% less)and your
80 MPH travel on the second part of the trip is an increase in speed of 45%
over the 55 MPH you traveled on the first half of the trip. There appears to
be a rough correlation. I do know that two of the reasons for the increase
use of fuel is due to road and wind resistance. They increase as your speed
increases forcing the engine to use more fuel to maintain the rpm required.
Other factors also will affect the different MPG between the first and
second half of your trip would be hills as well as wind direction.
Of course while you used 35% more fuel on the second half of the trip you
did get to where you were going 45% quicker.
If you require a more technical answer, let me know and I will ask my son.
Hey I paid for his engineering degree I might as well get some use out of
it.
Miles Harris III
Simi Valley, CA
01 CC 2.5L 5 speed.
_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.
Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
http://profiles.msn.com.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 11:57:07 EDT