Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Noc
Keeping your foot off the brake pedal is by far the best way to improve fuel consumption. Amazes me how some people just look at the car in front of them and are constantly on and off the brake pedal. When I taught my kids to drive I made sure they were aware of what was happening in the distance to save fuel. See the lights change to red further down the road, then take your foot straight off the gas pedal - no point in continuing to add fuel only to hit the brakes a few seconds later. Give a bit more space between you and the car in front and keep an eye on the horizon and you can reduce wasting fuel by braking.
And as I'm old school I still engine brake - the diesels shut off fuel when the car is above engine idle speed.
Drove coaches back in the day and you had more choices of braking - exhaust brake and an hydraulic retarder were options.
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Spot on Mike, it's surprising how much reading the road saves fuel and makes for a smoother drive.
I've always set myself a little challenge when driving or riding a motorbike to try to do the journey without actually coming to a stop simply by reading the road, easing off the gas, engine braking etc. it's surprising what you can achieve when you get into it, obviously care must be taken not to baulk others behind.
An easy way of reducing consumption is to control what your right foot is doing, as my dad used to say " Drive as if you had slippers on, not clogs. "
I do many trips through out the year / years down to my caravan, both by car and motorbike, about 160 miles and have done the non stop several times in the car, but far more frequently on the bike, being able to chose the time of day to travel helps a lot though.
I'm amazed how many drivers there are these days who think the accelerator is an on, off switch, foot either off the pedal or flat to the floor, they usually have an excessively noisy exhaust, loud dump valve, and, or a re-map, allows a small amount of fuel to be injected on overrun, too weak to be ignited in the combustion chamber but ignites in the hot exhaust to create pops and bangs on the overrun, hoping that the result will have folk looking at their car.................the ohh look at me crowd.
