HyperMiling

I have a small confession to make: I'm not really into cars. Lot's of guys are crazy about cars, and it's a trait that is typically associated with masculinity. When I look at a car, I think of it as a way to get from point A to point B in the quickest, most convenient and most economical way possible. When I say economical, I mean the least fuel consumption, not only for my wallet (I spent between $1100-$1400 on gas last year) but also for the environment (a third possible reason would be to not fund terrorism, but that's debatable). If someone were to ask me what my dream car would be, I would actually boringly answer something like an Insight or civic/accord hybrid.

That's why the following article about Hypermilers really caught my attention. Hypermilers are people that have optimized their driving technique to get insane mileage. The results are nothing short of amazing. For example, one of the hypermilers can get 59 mpg out of an Accord. The EPA rated mileage for that car is half of that. He is even able to get the equivalent mileage of a Civic when driving an SUV.

I had no idea that driving techniques could affect your mileage in such a significant way. I knew that jamming on the accelerator and generally going fast affects fuel consumption negatively, but by this much? I do little things like coasting to stop lights to try to time them, using cruise control, not accelerating too quickly, etc. For example, I always try to see how far I can coast on the 401 East offramp to Eglinton, but only if there are no other cars around. This is the catch: to perform some of these fuel saving actions, you have to be willing to not follow the rules of the road - in a legal sense as well as violating driving social norms.

For example, to keep the momentum from highway driving, they'll go through a 270 degree offramp at 80 km/h. At that speed tires are definitely squealing. To start the vehicle, they'll push the car out of the driveway. Drafting, is a common technique, but he turns OFF his engine while doing it. But there are simple and more doable ones as well, such as not driving in the wheel ruts of highways (ridge-riding) when it's wet - energy is wasted kicking up the water needlessly.

Most of the advanced techniques are out of reach for normal people (myself included), but I think if we all paid a bit of attention to the way we drive, we can save some gas. On way to achieve this is mentioned in the article and it's to include a fuel consumption display in all cars, so that people could learn how to drive smarter. I would love this feature in my car, and honestly, I would treat it like a video game and try to maximize my "points". Does equating driving with a video game sound frightening?

So if I admire people like these hypermilers more than sport cars/SUVs, what does it say about me? (and my masculinity?)