Existential Angst wrote:


So that 168 is a REAL number? How did he do it? I'm under the impression
there weren't tremendous modifications, if he did this in a borrowed car.
Is this stuff Joe Blow can do?? Is this what prius c geekies are doing to
some extent, when they get near-70 mpgs?
Yes, YOU TOO can learn to do it! I suggest going to one
of these competitions and somehow getting one of the pros
to allow you to ride along. Supposedly, it is a harrowing
experience for journalists, who said they expected to die
horrible every second of the ride. I guess these guys never
stop, go around turns at 50 MPH, etc. so they never have to use
the brakes.

There might be some videos taken in these competitions, but
maybe for legal reasons the drivers don't want them to be
public. I've just read about it, and maybe these stories
are exaggerated by the writers.

Before I got my Honda Civic Hybrid, I tried hypermiling
my 1989 Toyota Corolla station wagon. I did mild hypermiling
before, like pushing in the clutch when going down a hill,
and got about 29 MPG in mixed city driving. Then, I tried
to see how far I could push it, like shutting the engine off
while going down hill and at every light. I was able to
push it up to nearly 35 MPG, hardly worth the trouble.
I easily get over 50 MPG tooling around town in the Civic
hybrid, just being light on the gas. In the Civic, you
want to keep the engine in Atkinson-cycle mode as much
as possible, so you don't press down on the accelerator
when going up a hill, you let the speed fade.
On a Prius, which doesn't have variable valve timing,
supposedly the pulse and glide scheme gives best fuel
economy.


Jon