Japanese Mileage Freaks Hack Prius For 116 MPG
Bloomberg published a nice piece today on Japanese gas-mileage nerds (called nenpimania in Japan) who hack their Priuses and use crazy driving technique to get up to 116 MILES PER GALLON (they go 1,000 miles on a single, 13-gallon tank of gas). Techniques include hacking the cars' computer systems, adding special tires, strategically placing tape, cardboard and foam rubber over the engine and grill and -- here's the best bit -- driving barefoot for zen-like "stealth-mode" driving. (Photo shows American, not Japanese, Prius hack.)
10:19 AM * PERMALINK * 10 comments
Comments:
Looks like the new X-prize for a 100 mpg car won't be so difficult after all.
There's a mileage X prize? Can you post the link here?
Thanks!
Mike
http://auto.xprize.org/
Personally, I think I'll save up for a Tesla Motors roadster - definitely in the "I want one category"
http://www.teslamotors.com/
Thanks!
Mike
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It's probably me. Seriously, I think one of the main reasons Prius owners get such great mileage is that screen on the dash that tells you every second what your mileage is. If everyone had this, everyone would drive like that person in front of you.
Mike
I agree with Mike: I have a 14 year old SAAB that has a rudimentary dashboard display that can show both instantaeous gas milage as well as cumulative mpg.
The instantaneous milage is displayed as a dynamic bar graph with about 12 lights, corresponding to about 5 mpg intervals. This makes it very easy to see the direct result of your driving behavior and make changes to maximize milage.
The cumulative mpg feature is a numeric readout to the nearest tenth mpg.
The reset feature lets you decide whether you'll track one leg of a single trip, or let run for an entire tank, or your entire use of the car.
Another great feature is the miles-to-empty counter, which also adapts to driving conditions to dynamically update. That's saved my ass more than once, letting me nurse the gas pedal to make to the next gas station.
This trip computer is head and shoulders above the vacuum gauges that used to aftermarket installed and just indicated instant, relative economy.
I don't understand why every car hasn't has one of these.
I do wish that the trip computer was a bit more advanced. If you could store all of your data and download it later. If there were stopwatch like functions, so you could do splits - check your milage over an interval in the middle of a longer trip, and still maintain data integrity for the entire trip, etc.
YMMV!
Prius --- A lot of technology to do what my little VW Jetta Diesel 4-speed (2001) does with no fanfare at all... rarely less than 43 mpg around Town, and regularly above 50 mpg on the road... 700 miles on the 15-gallon tank is not out of the ordinary... and the mileage is not slipping with age, either. I'm at 125,000 miles now and I just logged a 53 MPG jaunt. I keep it below 70 MPH, generally 63-65 MPH. When you're driving this car on the road trip, your body can't last as long between stops as the car can.
I have a '97 Cadillac Sedan de Ville with digital everythins. It has a digital readout that give the instant MPG. I use it all the time and it helps me tremendously in getting better gas mileage. I get 22.7 avg. and 29 MPG on the hwy. I am waiting for the '08 Camry hybrids, as I've heard they are improving the batteries and downsizing the electric motors with even more electric power. The Camry hybrid is the best hybrid I've driven.
Have you driven a Prius? Mike
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