My 55 MPH Experiment

#1

With gas prices doing some ass kicking, the 80's slogan, 'drive 55 and stay alive' has new meaning...I have a 1997 Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer with 260000 miles on it, all original trans and engine...I recently visited my mom, and decided to conduct a little experiment driving at various speeds...First a few facts...

Time it takes to go a mile going:

75 MPH - 48 seconds
70 MPH - 51 seconds
65 MPH - 55 seconds
60 MPH - 60 seconds
55 MPH - 65 seconds

Gas cost per gallon - $2.43

OK...My trip from the gas station to my driveway was a total of 87.8 miles...I drove uninterrupted @ 55 mph for 77 of those miles...The entire trip, I never drove more than 55...

So, the main leg of the trip:

Speed - 55 MPH
Distance - 77 Miles
Time - 84 minutes, or 1 hour 24 minutes
Estimated MPG - 26.4 /ohmy.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":o" border="0" alt="ohmy.gif" />
Total Gallons burned - About 3.2
Cost of said fuel - $7.17

Fucking amazing..! Now, you are talking to a guy that is a notoriously fast driver...I won't get off the gas for shit...But man, those are some impressive numbers..! I ended up with an average of 26.1 MPG, going the last 10 miles of the trip or so through a few stop signs and what not...Now, here are a few stats had I went a bit faster, or around my normal speed...

Speed - 70 MPH
Distance - 77 Miles
Time - 66 Minutes or 1 hour 6 minutes
Estimated MPG - 19.4
Total Gallons Burned - About 4
Cost of said fuel - $9.72

Time Difference from 55 MPH - 18 minutes

For speeders, those chaps that drive 75-80, aka circa 1999 AYHJA /:D" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt=":D" />

Speed - 80 MPH
Distance - 77 Miles
Time - 58 Minutes
Estimated MPG - 18
Total Gallons burned - 4.3
Cost of said fuel - $10.43

Time Difference from 55 MPH - 26 minutes

So, here's a little facts and numbers for those that may have been curious about it...If you can get on the highway and set the cruise for 55, and if traffic is good ( which is why I LOVE night driving) and you don't have to stop, consider a bit of a longer trip:

Speed - 55 MPH
Distance - 200 Miles
Time - 218 Minutes or 3.6 Hours
Estimated MPG - 26.4
Total Gallons burned - 7.6
Cost of said fuel - $18.57

Speed - 75 MPH
Distance - 200 Miles
Time - 160 Minutes or 2.7 Hours
Estimated MPG - 19
Total Gallons burned - 10.5
Cost of said fuel: $25.51

My truck can hold about 30 Gallons via the all mighty top off /:D" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt=":D" /> , so going 55 MPH along a stretch before refueling:

Total Miles Traveled: 766 Miles (792 the whole 30)
Time It Would Take: 836 Minutes or about 14 hours

Going 70

Total Miles Travelled: 563
Time It Would Take: 450 Minutes or about 7 hours

So, on longer trips, it may make more sense to drive 70/75, but for those short hauls, 55 is the way for me... /:D" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt=":D" />

#2

Wow...that's amazing there A. Good work! Even for the long hauls if you need to save gas going 55 will do it for you. Of course it'll take you so much longer to get there but it just might be worth it

#3

Don't drive slower, just make more money /:D" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt=":D" />

Jk, good stats there...

#4

Thanks..! For the long hauls, I'm rarely by myself, most got women and kids on board, going 55, we'd save gas, but stop every fucking hour and a half anyway, so I'd rather go 70/75 then, lol....We'd never get there otherwise...

Heh @ Aemeth, making more money is never the answer to always having it... /wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />

#5

Good info, I remember someone told me each mph you drive above 60 is like adding $.50 for each gallon of gas, sounds about right.

#6

yeah , but everyone blows by you @ 55
I even see people reading the paper during their commute

#7

Ahh, well I meant to comment on that also...Sure, people blow by you, and some people did...But when the highway started to run through town, a few people blew by me and were gone, but by the time they got caught by the redlight and it turned green, I'd caught them again...Had they started where I started from, they'd have a 18 minute ETA in front of me, but it'd take 70 miles to stretch that out...On a short kinda trip, you'd have a while to go before you'd be a big noticeable difference ahead of someone...

#8

You are damn right with your experiment.
I had the same thing this summer.
A total revelation to me. With the same tank, I could add another 100km (something like 70m) just by adjusting my driving (mainly the gas pedal /tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":P" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" />)a little bit...

Just one remark....

In the states, you can't drive fast because ... cops crawl from EVERYWHERE /tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":P" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" />
Unfortunately, this is ALSO coming to EU, but here, when we talk about speeding, that's above 130 mph /:D" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt=":D" /> (legal being 75-85)

Oh, and another remark... Cars there eat gas like HELL. Here, only RICH people have cars above 3000cc /tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":P" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" />

#9

I drive like I do because other people need to pray more often.

Seriously, if all I save is a few bucks, but it takes 30 minutes of my time. MY time is worth those few bucks.

#10

I seem to be agreeing with you an aweful lot lately raum!

My general mantra when I am driving is: "Come on you <insert appropriate gender based expletive>, it's the pedal on the RIGHT!"

heh seriously, if I am driving I am going as fast as the traffic flow will allow...when there is no traffic, I try to set a new personal best top speeds. Plus it is not always about the destination, I love driving and like to maximize the experience whenever possible.