Gas mileage contest, "Economy Run" Fonda, NY 8-5-08

[blownb310]

Greetings fellow Nissan/Datsun hypermilers. For those of you located in the northeast, the Adirondack Motor Enthusiast Club A.M.E.C. will be holding a Fall Foliage "Economy Run" coming up this October 5, 2008.

A little history: A.M.E.C. held it's first Economy Run back in 1954. Now 54 years later with record high fuel prices, the club decided to bring the event back. Our members created a new course and the event took place this past August 10th. It was very well received and was thoroughly enjoyed by all who participated. Results can been seen here. It was a good dry run to make sure everything went smoothly and that our laptop excel program worked properly to calculate the results. We enjoyed it so much that we have planned an "Economy Run II" and this time would like to open it up to like minded individuals who would like to join us. To keep it easy to manage and fun we will limit registration to the first 20 entrants.

Here are the details:

What: Fuel mileage contest through the southern Adirondacks of NY. The route will be on some really nice scenic and challenging roads and will run 106.3 miles in distance. Your “economic” driving ability will be tested. Cars will be filled with fuel by an AMEC official and then weighed on electronic scales. Small ramps are employed for easy on and off of the scales. There will be a time limit of three hours to complete the event. Any street legal vehicle is allowed to participate, [including motorcycles].This event will run rain or shine.

Where: The starting spot will be at the Fairway Oil gas station on Route 5 in Fonda, NY. [directions below].

When: Sunday, October 5th, 2008. Arrival time will be 8:00-8:30am, first car off at 9:00am. They have gas and diesel and have a large enough parking lot that we won’t be in the way. (They also don’t use ethanol, if that makes a difference to anyone.)

Cost: $10 per vehicle

Awards include:

1. Best overall mpg for gas cars

2. Best overall mpg for diesels and hybrids

3. Best ton-mile per gallon [TMPG] Car weight in pounds divided by 2000 times miles driven divided by gallons consumed. A handy calculator is here.

4. Best carbureted mpg

5. Best miles per dollar. [Based on the actual cost to travel the 106.3 miles. For example, we had a diesel VW Jetta get 56 mpg and a Dodge Avenger get 48 mpg. Because the diesel fuel was about a dollar more per gallon than the gasoline, the Avenger won this contest.]

Note: If we get more than one motorcycle, we will add a class for them.

Awards: This event will conclude about noon, and our plan is to proceed up the nearby Checkers Out Go-Kart track for lunch, trophy awards, and optional indoor go-kart races if you so desire. Checkers Out Speedway is an indoor go kart track open year round, and is located about ¾ of a mile south of Johnstown, NY, on NYS Route 30A. Physical address: 2299 State Hwy 30A Johnstown, NY 12905. Track phone: 518 736-4630

Directions: to Fairway Oil gas station: Take NY Thruway Exit 28. After the toll booth, turn left onto Riverside Drive. Then turn right onto South Bridge Street and go over the bridge. On the other side of the bridge is a traffic light. You can see Fairway Oil and Gas on your left. Turn left onto Route 5 and enter the station.

To register for this event: Please contact Mike Kamm at (518) 674-0520 or via email: mkamm [at ] juno [ dot] com. There is also a message board thread regarding this event on the A.M.E.C. message board here.





Registered drivers as of 8-25-08:

1. Dave Burnham - 1991 Diesel Jetta 2. d!ck Vedder - 2000 Ford ZX2 S/R 3. Mark Long - 1997 Dodge Avenger 4. Mike Kamm - 1977 Datsun B210 "The saver's choice". 5. Claude Hutchings - 1999 Saab 9-3 6. Ernie Yue - 2008 Kawasaki Ninja 250cc 7. Ronny Kienhuis - 1972 Citroen SM or 1992 Subaru SVX 8. "Bestmapman" 2007 Toyota Prius, Cincinnati, KY. 9. "JPS000" - 2008 Toyota Prius 10. "Hobbit" - 2004 Toyota Prius - Boston, MA 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

[blownb310]

Udated entry as of 9-6-08-:

1. Dave Burnham - 1991 Diesel Jetta - Delanson, NY 2. d!ck Vedder - 2000 Ford ZX2 S/R - Johnstown, NY 3. Mark Long - 1997 Dodge Avenger - Staatsburg, NY4. Mike Kamm - 1977 Datsun B210 - Averill Park, NY 5. Claude Hutchings - 1999 Saab 9-3 - Saquiot, NY 6. Ernie Yue - 2008 Kawasaki Ninja 250cc - Mechanicville, NY7. Ronny Kienhuis - 1972 Citroen SM or 1992 Subaru SVX - Long Island, NY8. "Bestmapman" [Clean mpg forums] 2007 Toyota Prius - Cincinnati, KY. 9. "JPS000" - 2008 Toyota Prius 10. Al Walker - [Clean MPG] - 2004 Toyota Prius - Boston, MA11. Brian Wilsey - 2003 Mazda Protege - Amsterdam, NY12. Tom Moeller - 1994 Mazda Miata - Saratoga NY 13. Carl Germain - 1950 Studebaker Champion Business Coupe - Syracuse, NY14.15.16.17.18.19.20.

Only 7 spots left!

[blownb310]

Registered driver's list as of 9-20-08 1. Dave Burnham - 1991 Diesel Jetta - Delanson, NY 2. d!ck Vedder - 2000 Ford ZX2 S/R - Johnstown, NY 3. Mark Long - 1997 Dodge Avenger - Staatsburg, NY 4. Mike Kamm - 1977 Datsun B210 - Averill Park, NY 5. Claude Hutchings - 1999 Saab 9-3 - Saquiot, NY 6. Ernie Yue - 2008 Kawasaki Ninja 250cc - Mechanicville, NY 7. Ronny Kienhuis - 1972 Citroen SM or 1992 Subaru SVX - Long Island, NY 8. Jud Engels [Clean mpg forums] 2007 Toyota Prius - Cincinnati, KY. 9. "JPS000" - 2008 Toyota Prius 10. Al Walker - [Clean MPG] - 2004 Toyota Prius - Boston, MA 11. Brian Wilsey - 2003 Mazda Protege - Amsterdam, NY 12. Tom Moeller - 1994 Mazda Miata - Saratoga NY 13. Carl Germain - 1950 Studebaker Champion Business Coupe - Syracuse, NY 14. Bill Clark - 1960 Metropolitan - Endicott, NY 15. Jonathan Bartlett - 2005 Passat TDI wagon[Biodiesel] - Sterling, MA 16. Pam Subik - 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee - Mayfield, NY17. Tom Compoli - 1981 VW Rabbit - Schenectady, NY 18. Chris Werner, 1991 Ford Festiva - Troy, NY 19. 20. This event will be completely full shortly. What I will do is add 3 more spots for cancellations and no shows. 1. 2. 3.

[nsrZ32]

Interesting idea. Shame I don't have anything that's remotely fuel efficient haha

Should be fun. Take lots of pictures!

[blownb310]

Thanks Jerry,

Your 98 Sentra could probably get 35 mpg if you hypermiled it! I see that you're a bit far away in OH though.

Cheers,

Mike

[AutoShadow]

Nice an "environment friendly" event, take pics...that 250 Ninja should be interesting...hmm...

[blownb310]

Nice an "environment friendly" event, take pics...that 250 Ninja should be interesting...hmm...

Will do. Here's a pic from the first economy run we had back in August.

They were balancing Ernie on his Ninja, on the electronic scales before the event. The 250 Ninja is rated at 60 mpg, but Ernie got 76. He has added a taller final drive and will be shooting for 80 mpg next Sunday.

[blownb310]

Here's how I prepared my car for this event. Previously the car was modified for speed and power. I used it for hillclimbs and such. I built and modified the 1397cc engine to 1608cc's complete with twin 40mm Dellortos... It ran terrific but only got 25 mpg. OK so I needed a stock engine for economy run events. So I removed this original 1397cc engine from my '76 B210 parts car. It sat outside in a field for the last 15 years. It needed some TLC. I tore it down and freshened it up. I used an '80 Datsun 210 "mpg" cylinder head with it's smaller round intake ports and small combustion chambers. This head, on the B210 block [with it's flat top pistons] yields about 10.5 to 1 compression ratio. High compression is key for improving gas mileage.

Other than the Pacesetter header and 2" mandrel bent exhaust system, the reast of the drivetrain is stock.

The big engine comes out, the little one goes in....

After bolting it all together, I fine tuned it with an Innovate LM1 wide band oxygen sensor setup. After rejetting the stock Hitachi carburetor for between 14.6 and 15.0 to 1 A/F ratio, I took the car out on a 64 mile test loop the afternoon before the big event. I topped up the fuel tank to the rim and then carefully drove a 64 mile loop. I refilled the tank [right to the rim again] and it took 1.1 gallons of gas. I was very happy to have gotten 56 mpg in this initial test! B210's sit quite high off of the ground and this brings a poor drag coefficient, so I went home that night and tried to help the poor aerodynamics. I added a makeshift front chin spoiler, clear plexiglass headlight covers, and blocked off half of the grill to reduce wind drag.

The next I morning I competed in the A.M.E.C. Economy Run event and carefully drove the 118.7 mile distance. During the post event refill it took only 1.91 gallons of fuel. This equates to 61.53 miles per gallon!

I think we have a new record for the B210/B310 chassis folks.

This was not my absolute best attempt at fuel mileage for these cars. I would have needed much more time to prepare. There are many other things I can and will try in the future but I don't want to do this with my B210 though. My plan is to take this to the next level with my '81 210 sedan instead. Then I will get into lowering the car for aerodynamics and such.

[blownb310]

Full results for this event are HERE.

[nsrZ32]

Holy crap....61.53 mpg!

As fun as that sounds, I'd rather take the Hi-Po motor getting 25 mpg