Fuel Economy Record - 1,626 on a single tank!

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TDiSkater

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3 day trip "averaging" 41 mph with some highway at 60 mph. Their record is safe! I got 42mpg on my way home last night and I got all excited - geez.
 

jbright

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These are the same people who set a record in an '09 Jetta TDI, then broke it again later. I forget their average mpg for those trips -- 59 and 69 I think. As the article states, they are professional hypermilers. Mere mortals probably can't accomplish such feats.
 

roadhard1960

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Do the math for fun. 1626 miles divided by 3 days divided by 14 hours is less than 40 mph. My map program shows about 1,400 miles by interstate and 1629 miles if you avoid interstates. So when they claim they did 60 mph on the highway that could be true as they were barely on the interstate. Probably annoying as heck doing 40 on rural roads with 55 mph posted. If they did the short route and drove 60 mph average they would have taken 23.5 hours. Heck 1600 miles at 60 mph is 26.6 hours. You might conclude it took them 3 days at 14 hours or 52 hours. They certainly were not driving 60 mph very often.
 

detroitmike

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Could you imagine getting stuck behind those jack asses. I would lose my mind. Probably had a line of cars behind them a mile long the whole way.

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MyAvocation

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Tons of Google hits on this. Here's some additional info I found:

they said they drove about 5 miles per hour below the speed limit

“We’d sit on 60,” John Taylor said. “Reducing speed saved 23 percent in fuel.”

They also said they kept the car’s tire pressure at the proper mark, drove smoothly and consistently and idled as little as possible.

They only used air conditioning on two occasions.

That's 1,626.1 miles
from just 19.3 gallons.

To ensure the test was conducted accurately, the speedometer was correctly calibrated for accuracy, recording parity at 20, 50 and 70 mph. The odometer was reading slightly under, so all figures were corrected to maintain accuracy.

John and Helen Taylor achieve 1,626 miles on a tank of Diesel in a VW Passat TDI
The fuel used was verified by Senior Police Officer Daniel M. Rodriguez in Texas, then sealed and signed. Motel managers along the route also signed to confirm the seal was still intact, before it was finally signed for and removed by Deputy Sheriff Alonzo Perry at the end of the drive.




EDIT:
And this chronicles the process: Cool Pictorial Account
 
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97B4TDi

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Abacus

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Something doesn't smell right here...so with a lack of convincing, I'm not believing it.

Hypermilling or not, I'm not buying the hype just yet.
 
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oilhammer

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There are just too many to list....
Not really sure what the purpose of driving like that is... you cannot argue it "saves" money, as given the time it took one could get a job at McDonald's and earn the difference easily if they just drove normally and got 'only' 45 MPG.

But I guess they are somewhat famous now. Wonder what they could do in my ALH/5sp Golf that seems to get no less than 50MPG no matter how fast I drive it. :p
 

VeeDubTDI

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If that's accurate, I'm pretty impressed. I'm surprised that there weren't any sneaky elevation changes slid into the equation somewhere, but Houston to Sterling is about as level as it gets. Obviously there are some changes through the mountains, but start to finish ends up around the same elevation.
 

pknopp

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Something doesn't smell right here...so with a lack of convincing, I'm not believing it.

Hypermilling or not, I'm not buying the hype just yet.
Neither do I. Simply too much starting and stopping on back roads and they aren't getting 86 doing 60.
 

DPM

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These people are VERY good. Don't forget the numbers they managed round Australia in the Pug 308, too.
 

firedwg1

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I just saw this posted on Edmunds Straightline:

http://blogs.insideline.com/straigh...-record-for-distance-on-one-tank-of-fuel.html

How is this possible? 1,626 on a single tank? :confused:

I am still trying to get a 600 mile tank on my JSW!
That claim you see basically states "84 MPG" @ 41 MPH. Its not likely, people like to make stories up and have others buy into it. I have seen many people claim above 55 mpg but this would mean they would have to drive well below the speed limit lots of coasting and slow stops / starts with very little brakes. Perhaps thats what they did but Nomal people do not drive like this...
 

VeeDubTDI

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Nobody said that they were normal people or that this is how normal people drive. Also, nobody is claiming that normal people can get 1600 miles per tank in a Passat TDI.

In my brief attempts at high MPGs in the Passat, high 50s are pretty easy around the DC beltway with light traffic. Given ideal conditions and 100% commitment to hypermiling and a 6 speed manual transmission, I think higher fuel economy is certainly plausible.
 

pknopp

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Nobody said that they were normal people or that this is how normal people drive. Also, nobody is claiming that normal people can get 1600 miles per tank in a Passat TDI.

In my brief attempts at high MPGs in the Passat, high 50s are pretty easy around the DC beltway with light traffic. Given ideal conditions and 100% commitment to hypermiling and a 6 speed manual transmission, I think higher fuel economy is certainly plausible.
Absolutely but in the 60's is a long ways from 84.
 

tdi90hp

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what BS. losers holding up traffic for a useless record. cmon guys....this is not the way to treat an engine...lugging and chugging. what a farce.
 

VeeDubTDI

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Unlikely lugging and chugging - I suspect pulse and glide.
 

NSTDI

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Can anyone with a 6MT reproduce that by driving at 40MPH in 6th on a flat road? Just for a short distance?

It must be they have a car with KM's not miles.

Don
 

gergg

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In my brief attempts at high MPGs in the Passat, high 50s are pretty easy around the DC beltway with light traffic. Given ideal conditions and 100% commitment to hypermiling and a 6 speed manual transmission, I think higher fuel economy is certainly plausible
Yep, I've posted high 50 mpg results from long highway trips on here and had people flipping out calling me everything but an axe murderer:D so I stopped doing it...But, today I drove 189 miles on the highway, cruise set at 64 mph and averaged 58ish mpg, 84mpg is huge, but I don't discount their report here.
 

Niner

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19.3 gallons in a tank... impressive... wonder what their HPFP looks like now inside?
 

keks

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Very impressive. Good press for diesels could lead to more diesel options stateside..

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BarnyardsTDI

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Ditch the passenger and just imagine the fuel savings!!!!!!!!!! Haha impressive, but Im sorry I actually like to arrive to my destination in a reasonable amount of time. Doing speed limits is reasonable to me.
 

Second Turbo

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Niner > 19.3 gallons in a tank... impressive... wonder what their HPFP looks like now inside?

Indeed.

  • Do Passats have Botch CP4 pumps?
  • Did these hypermilers consume all the fuel by running the tank dry?
  • Did they thus just perform a Self-Destruct-Enable on the HPFP?
 

RomanL

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so many non believers,
i am impressed, its not the way i would drive , i'd gladly pay extra for all the MPG's i loose, but that doesnt mean i'm not happy or impressed to see those numbers.
i keep telling myself that when i have a perfect road trip lined up i will try to catch my 800m/tank UNICORN,
technically they drove the speed limits or very close to it (5 under? we see that all the time) im sure on smaller rural roads people can just go around, so i dont see an issue of being stuck being them *(its not like they camped in the left lane at 60MPH on a 80 MPH freeway)

and am i really the first person to say: what about HPFP running out of fuel? :) :)

EDIT : i just saw someone beat me to HPFP :)
 

RomanL

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what BS. losers holding up traffic for a useless record. cmon guys....this is not the way to treat an engine...lugging and chugging. what a farce.
really? they said they were mostly on small rural roads, doing speed limit or just few miles under when on faster roads. so if it was 45 or 55 MPH rural road they probably were doing that.
and as far as i can remember most rural roads are BROKEN YELLOW line, meaning you can pass as long as its not a hill or a blind turn.
lighten up dude. its a very impressive record
 
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