Wayne, the world’s most fuel-efficient driver, really hates wasting gas. From MotherJones:
Wayne doesn’t get high mpg marks by tinkering with engines or using funky fuels or even, most days, by driving a hybrid. He gets them by driving consciously – hyperconsciously….
Wayne is doing no more than 15 miles per hour. Before he’s out of sight, though, he turns a full loop on the exit road to slow himself down, so he doesn’t have to brake at a traffic jam ahead. Wayne hates braking.
Here are just a few of the techniques Wayne uses to save gas.
We are not endorsing these, they’re just interesting:
• Avoid braking. As in, stop the car without braking.
• “Ridge-riding” This is Wayne’s term for riding over the white line. It tells people that he’s moving slowly, and has other benefits: “Ridge-riding, Wayne explains, saves gas in the rain, as it gets the wheels out of the puddly grooves in the road created by more, let’s say, traditional drivers. “People are burning fuel to throw water in the air,” he says, adding that you can hear if you’re driving in the road’s grooves or out of them.”
• Drive with no air conditioning, and with the windows up. Yes, “and.” Not “or”. And. (Wayne lives in the Chicago/Milkwaukee area, for those of you familiar with that region’s lovely weather.)
• Take sharp turns at 50 mph with the engine off.
• Push the car out of the driveway.
• Draft 18-Wheelers by driving close behind them. (Never do this!)
The lengths Wayne goes to save gas are strange, occasionally very unwise and sometimes oddly admirable. When the world ends, we’d like to know Wayne. Perhaps not before. —MEGHANN MARCO
This Guy Can Get 59 MPG in a Plain Old Accord. Beat That, Punk [MotherJones via Get Rich Slowly]
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Some of this – the bits that don’t involve 50mph cornering, the lorry-drafting and the kerb-hugging – is very close to the set of techniques an experienced pedal cyclist will use in a city, particularly the parts relating to timing technique approaching traffic lights. Having to provide your own power focusses the mind wonderfully on efficiency.
What ValkRaider said about living closer to work. Suggests other options for personal transport too, doesn’t it?
The idea of not losing momentum by not slowing to take corners surely can’t result in a very great payoff. Four-wheelers can’t lean, so more energy will be lost to friction, Mr Squealy-tyres. Also, how much does a new set of auto tyres cost these days?
To those who asked- any work the car does consumes gas. Running the radio, daytime running lights, the heater- everything. The battery gets its energy from the alternator which gets its energy from the engine. if you’re in a hybrid, you’re better off coasting than starting and stopping. The regenerative braking can only extract somthing like 30% of the energy lost to braking.
Also, to the guy with the grand prix- something’s wrong with your car, or your gas station. I assume they added 10% ethanol to the gas. Ethanol only has 3/4 the energy content, so your mileage will only go down 2.5% due to the ethanol.
@swalve:
I thought the same thing too, but other people here are experiencing the same ~2 mpg loss. The gas has been oxygenated to make for better burning at the expense of lower fuel efficiency.
It’s apparently coming to the rest of the country soon. So everyone may see a drop in their economy in the next few years.
I understand that the oil companies change the gasoline formula during the winter months which drops the fuel efficiency.
@AcilletaM: If he’s commuting from the northern ‘burbs to Aurora or thereabouts that’s nearly as bad as driving to Milwaukee and also easier to do by public transit. Metra to downtown, then out to Aurora. Regardless, I’m glad I don’t drive anymore because I wouldn’t want to run into this guy. Eesh.
I run my car with the AC on and my liters per hour doesn’t even change when driving normally. up a hill it does, but city driving i may as well be cool, it doesn’t cost any more.
Windows down vs. air conditioning
“Urban puzzle”: it is more efficient, on a hot day, to run with the A/C on and windows up than to run with windows down (b/c of increasing car’s drag).
Computer-based mpg measurements:
11.7/11.8 with A/C on and windows up
11.7/11.8 with A/C off and windows up
11.3 with A/C off and windows down
So, according to the computer, it’s better to use A/C with windows up.
This was too quick and easy for TV, so they decided to stage a seven hour marathon, race-til-you’re-empty duel, with Jamie driving an SUV with A/C on and Adam driving an SUV with windows down. Though, once the safety inspector intervened, it was no longer a seven-hour marathon, it was a bit slower (45mph instead of 55mph), and a lot shorter (only 5 gallons each).
Jamie’s A/C car ran out of gas first — Adam’s windows down SUV ran for another 30 laps — completely contradicting the computer mpg estimate. Computer estimate based on air flow into the engine, so it would appear that it is unable to properly model the difference between A/C and windows down.
Mythbusted
UPDATE
A/C vs. Windows Down
Myth: You save more gas driving with the A/C on than with the windows down (original A/C vs. windows down episode summary)
In the original mythbusting, they did a test at 55mph and A/C was more efficient. However, they used a computer to estimate gas consumption and they didn’t trust it. They did another test at 45mph and drove until the tanks emptied. In this second test, open windows won by a wide margin. They judged the latter test to be the correct result.
Error according to viewers: As you go faster, open window drag increases to a point where A/C becomes more efficient.
Court of appeals decision: both results from the original test were correct. At high speeds A/C is more efficient. At low speeds open windows is more efficient. They marked it busted, but I’m not sure what that means.
@Little Mintz Sunshine: AC in a hybrid has an electric compressor. Conventional cars drive the compressor off the engine directly. Either way the compressor will still impart a load to the engine (the electric one just does it by way of the alternator/generator). However you can’t do no AC and windows up in Texas during the summer. On a long drive you’d probably get Heatstroke at best. Up around Lake Michigan you can get away with it.
Also, no AC works fine when you don’t have to show up in People’s homes. Since the AC Broke on my Explorer I’m sure I smell pretty ripe when I show up at a customer’s place.
That dude’s got some fortitude…
This guy obviously lives in an alternative reality because in the real world, pulling this crap will get you shot.
@A_B: oh god i didn’t think i’d see a jameth reference here.
I live in the Chicago area (near suburbs) and know that if this guy does this on a regular basis around other drivers, he’s going to get himself killed.
I think that his [fill in the blank with your favorite explative] is dangerous, rude to other drivers, and can easily mess up traffic patterns. Other things are just plain wrong.
One thing that pisses me off is the “don’t brake” crap. It really should be “don’t slow down” because it’s not the breaking that takes up gas, it’s the resuming your previous speed that does.
I put my car in neutral when going down hills with the 7% decline signs!
I ran some hypermiling calculations once that suggested roughly zero net effect on other drivers’ fuel economy. Imagine a four lane highway (2 in each direction) during rush hour. Yes, a bottleneck forms as slow-lane drivers struggle to get around the hypermiler. But no, they do not use more gas due to acceleration on passing. This is because they spend a while driving slowly and save gas along with the hypermiler.
Being a devout hypermiler myself, I avoid rush hours so I don’t cause bottlenecks. In low-density traffic, people always pass me without having to slow down.
@Johnny: Avoid breaking: Don’t speed up to that red light in front of you. Don’t tailgate. Try to go the average speed of traffic, rather than speeding up to the next car in front of you on the freeway.
Some of Wayne’s ideas are foolhardy, but others are time-tested ways to save gasoline. And there’s no excuse for wasting gasoline.
Same reasoning applies to AC: Don’t keep it on all the time. Let the AC do its job. Then turn it off (you can keep the fan on). When you feel uncomfortable again, turn the AC back on. Use lower settings when possible.
The idea isn’t to drive yourself nuts–it’s to conserve energy when it’s simple to do so.
I don’t know if anyone noticed but Insane Wayne has his window down in
the picture…