You “The Big Joker is the Guarantee Joker” nyuckas is wrong, wrong wrong. The Big Joker is the BIG. JOKER.
George Foreman wouldn’t have had a problem.
I don’t think that is necessarily true.
Are you sure that 55mph speed is still true today? Isn’t it more efficient to drive at a constants speed? Raising the speed limits is supposed to make everything a more constant speed. Constant speed means less wear on brakes and tires, so it should reduce brake dust emission and tire dust, things that are a problem…
So fuel economy is higher city driving than highway?
The mileage stat on my Kia showed consistently better MPG at 70-75 mpg. With a 200 mile commute, you bet I tracked every god damn little hiccup!
“You can assume that each 5mph you drive over 50mph is like paying an additional $0.21/gallon”
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/driveHabits.jsp for those with no google power. I can also tell you the graph in the corner is a static image, not generated for each car.
I’m sure you’re being piled on but BULL SHIT. Gearing is different in most vehicles. You can’t claim that at all. You have a variation in gearing in the transmissions and then again the final gear in the differential(s). It’s insane to claim that 55 is a magic number.
Maybe a 1981 Ford Granada, not a modern car.
Nerd.
Heheh. How old are you? :)
So, this concept of a “magic speed” for fuel efficiency is due to a combination of a few factors for cars in the 1970s when the 55 mph speed limit was enacted.
There are losses for going too slow as well, your engine burns fuel just to be running, and not all losses scale the same way with speed. e.g. to take things to an extreme, you get terrible mileage when you’re going 0 mph.
Engineer here. A steady decline in MPG is not how it works. In fact, there are instances where the MPG will fall and rise drastically depending on gearing, engine speed, and aerodynamics. I would also be wary of believing anything from a site called “Observe the Speed Limit”.
That’s another myth. Older cars were, perhaps, more efficient around 55 because that was the national speed limit and that’s what they were tuned for. (And even then, that assumes that the statement was factual.)
But drag is only one element here, no? The speed at which a car would be most efficient would involve power, weight, torque, power curve, gearing, etc, no?
It’s Michigan. The next time someone in Michigan cares about the durability or performance of an automobile will be the first.