In an economy run, when you are going downhill, you do not let the engine
idle. You turn it off.
I once achieved the best overall mileage at an economy run with my V4 SAAB
one time. 54 MPG.
It was interesting to compare my SAAB to the BMW driven by the late Ray
McComb. We came over the top of a hill on a four lane road at the same
speed. We both turned off our engines and started coasting. By the time we
reached the bottom of the hill, I was a considerable distance ahead. The
differences were aerodynamics and tires. The SAAB was built like an egg (by
an aircraft company). The BMW was considerably more boxy. The BMW had
wide, smallish-diameter tires. The SAAB had tall skinny tires (in fact,
they were the same size my TR4 wears now: 165-15). Of course, we were both
running high tire pressures.
Phil Ethier West Side Saint Paul Minnesota USA
1970 Lotus Europa 65/2597, 1992 Saturn SL2, 1986 Suburban, 1962 TR4 CT2846L
pethier@isd.net http://www.mnautox.com/ http://www.lotusowners.com
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