Novi's Proletariat Garage

[Godson]

I clicked it, but I excluded it because 1 person had 5700 miles in less than a month, and put as little as 1.8 gallons of fuel in the vehicle, then proceeded to put 20 gallons on the car a few days later. Those miles are indicative of a person doing a cross country trek, but the fillups don't make sense unless it's Docksyde.

This one person also consistently pull 30mpg when nobody else out of others of similar years has. It seriously doesn't add up.

[Godson]

I'm all ok for being wrong, but having owned one, and driven countless of the others. Ain't no way a 4.6 Ford Mustang pulling 30mpg unless you are hypermilling like a mofo.

[thesameguy]

That's why I tend to rely on EPA number for comparative purposes. They may not reflect real driving, but they are repeatable, reliable numbers that are rarely that far off. Like Cam said, you can get high numbers out of any car if you try - I got a documented 38mpg in my Saab 9000 driving to Portland and Mexico, but I wouldn't suggest it's typical.

[Godson]

I completely disagree.

I'll fall back on the s2000, when the community is consistently netting 22-24mpg in mixed driving, with pretty commonly hitting low 30s in mileage, and another isn't, but is rated at the same, the system isn't accurate. 15-20% off is a large amount. Out of all the driving the s2000, I never once saw 19mpg living in the city and autocross on same tank with 3 drivers. That tank was the worst at 21mpg.


The ecoboost Ford's are another. Rated for much higher than you can get, hypermilling included.

EPA is just an estimate. Usually not correct.

[Random]

It's an estimate, but it's an estimate based on testing.

The main issue with the testing is that it's done on rollers, not roads, so (among other things) aero doesn't come into play.

[novicius]

Well KMR didn't happen -- I went to my usual quickie oil change places and while the work they did is fine, they peeked at the coolant... which caused my leaking intake to burp... which poured leaking coolant into the coil-on-plug-system (COPS) on the driver's side of the engine, producing a wicked misfire.

It's not the quickie oil jockeys fault but just bad luck. I hope the spark plug chamber dries out overnight without having burned out the COPS unit. Ah well, it's only money, right?

[Yeti]

Is the leaking intake something you've mentioned before? I don't remember that being one of the Banana's issues.

[novicius]

Yep-yep -- leaking intake coolant gasket, leaking head gasket, leaking timing chain cover, leaking oil pan gasket. All manageable and I'll tackle them this winter, just bad timing with the coolant-into-COPS leak. #shrug

I will let the car sit after tomorrow to dry out but I'll be taking it easy at the Autox School first.

[thesameguy]

I think the universe is telling you to quietly get to work on a 5.4l.

[novicius]

Yaaassss!

So misfire & all, I cleaned out the Bananastang and rolled slowly out to Jefferson Speedway yesterday morn. Like I couldn't even use fifth gear, it would lug and shudder so bad on the highway! #roadkill

4th gear all the way to keep the revs up at 2+ K and smooth out the engine as much as possible. Should I have been driving it to a driving school? Nope -- but I bitched so much about this event that I would've shown up in my Mama's Grand Prix if I'd had to. In retrospect I probably should have.

Some 30 drivers showed up, give or take. Lots of nice cars: 370Z's, Bimmers, Miatas, a Fiata, a turbo Miata, and a '13 Camaro SS 1LE on 200TW tires -- and then the Bananastang with a chest cold.









Good stuff.