Tired of putting enough cash into your gas tank each week to support the economy of a small country?
Then maybe it's time to check out a new extreme sport sweeping the nation, where the prize is radically increased fuel economy regardless of the type of vehicle you drive. Called "hypermiling," the goal is to squeeze maximum mileage out of every drop in your tank.
Wayne Gerdes of Chicago earned the unofficial title "King of the Hypermilers", driving 2,254 miles on a single 13.7-gallon tank of gas during the Honda Insight Marathon in Oklahoma last year. That translates into 165 miles per gallon - in a vehicle with an EPA rating of 60 mpg city/66 mpg highway.
Gerdes' achievement was made possible by his use of the innovative driving strategies of the hypermiler, varying from the mundane to the insane.
The first and most-effective practice for using less fuel involves taking a page or two from the "Tortoise and the Hare." Slow and steady wins the hypermiling race. Driving at posted speed limits can cause fuel efficiency to increase by as much as 12 percent, since driving at higher speeds can cause drag (wind resistance) and mechanical friction, both of which reduce fuel economy.
If you avoid jackrabbit starts and sudden stops, thereby keeping relatively low, constant rpm levels, you can gain another 31 percent in fuel efficiency. And if you let your car do the driving with cruise control, you will gain another 7 percent.
Avoiding the brakes like the plague can lead to improvement of up to 19 percent. Gerdes recommends that whenever possible, you learn the timing of traffic lights on your regular route so you can coast up to red lights until they turn green, to avoid stopping.
Gerdes also asserts that an idle engine is the gas devil's playground. Today's fuel-injection systems have made starting an engine more efficient than idling, so if your car has to sit while it is running for more than 10 seconds, it is actually better to cut off the ignition. If the drive-through line at the local fast food eatery is lengthy, park the car and walk inside instead of letting your car idle while you wait for your fries.
Creative parking can also help. Since backing up consumes more fuel than driving forward, whenever possible park nose out.
And when it comes to increasing fuel efficiency, the hotter, the better. Your engine runs on its most efficient mode when it's warm, so if you have several stops to make, heat things up by stopping at the destinations that are farthest out first, thereby giving your engine time to warm up.
Never tire of checking your tires, and look at your car as a high-maintenance member of your family. Gerdes recommends keeping your engine tuned, inflating your tires to the maximum allowable pressure, and making the switch to lighter-weight oil.
Eliminate every ounce of excess weight in the car and avoid fuel-consuming drag by removing anything from the roof, including racks and those colorful flags supporting your local sports team. Go low tech by limiting mechanical power use by avoiding the A/C and radio, and drive in the daytime so you won't have to use your headlights.
You will want to avoid some of the often illegal, usually questionable and downright dangerous techniques of the most fanatical hypermilers, such as blocking your car's grill openings with tape or cardboard to improve aerodynamics, making high-G turns to avoid hitting the brakes, ripping out your passenger and/or back seat, pulling up dangerously close behind a big rig (drafting) so that it can pull you along in its wake, or coasting in neutral down hills (which is illegal in California).
To enter the ranks of a true hypermiler, you must subscribe wholeheartedly to the notion that a "penny saved is a penny earned." Hypermilers believe it is the cumulative effect of many small changes that can increase your vehicle's fuel efficiency so dramatically.
Michelle Groh-Gordy is the owner of InterActive! Traffic School Online at www.trafficinteractive.com , and writes a syndicated weekly column on driving for the publications of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group.
