Sydney to Geelong, on 1 tank!

[EDManual]

Having read about all this so called prius economy or AFM commy V8 with a 90 litre tank making Melbourne on a tank (doing well under the speed limit...), I thought I would give it a go in my 2007 elantra 2.0. at over the speed limit.

Filled up in Parramatta (20km from city) at about 2.30 pm Friday , sat on 120km/h GPS speed in 110 zones(not speedo speed) which is certainly not an ideal speed for such an economy test, however when heading down hills went 130ish or a bit more, and uphills didnt put the foot down at all, sometimes letting the car slow to just 100km/h. Did 110 in 100 zones... and about the speed you should do in the roadworks of which there isnt much left to finish! At one point down hill hitting 130 gps speed, saw some white in the bushes!braked and went past at 120, he didnt move phew! (I guess I would have explained I was trying to get good fuel economy?!) Pulled in at Albury for the night at about 7.30pm after doing 550km and the fuel guage sitting just under the half! In the morning, I was thinking I could really make it! So before I left, went to bunnings and bought a jerry can.

Left Albury, guage seems to be going down a bit quicker! hmm, pulled in at a servo to fill up jerry can and get some maccas for brekky. About 100km out from Melbourne my fuel light came on! Kept going onto the ring road, now had done somewhere around 860 on the tank and 80 on the fuel light! Oh yeah, for the last 50km you have to do the speed limit, 110 or 100 as there are average speed cameras...back on the ring road, 10 over again, then, woohoo, made the geelong freeway!

Looking pretty low now, but I had seen my guage lower! SO confident of making geelong kept going at 110. There was a Ferrari 430 pulled over by the cops on the other side of the highway around Laverton! He must have been dangerously doing 115 on the 4 lane 100 zone freeway! Bad almost killed everybody ferrari driver!

How slow do people drive! Maybe one person passed me in the whole drive!

Kept going past petrol stations with my light on! Now its done 150km with the petrol light on! I made the outskirts of Geelong! I figure it must be closeish to the end, so take the port way into the city instead of the hwy so as not to stop and block anyone, got past shell and ... thats it. rolled to the side of the road, having done 930km on the tank!! By GPS, not odometer. Also just confirmed the distance on Google Earth maps.

Put 2 litres in, drove to the APCO Servo at Newcomb, filled up with 58 litres to the brim, as I filled up the day before.

Good fun!

And I would think if I did the same style driving with the hills however sat on 110 or 100 I surely would break 1000km on a tank at 110 or even 1100 at 100!

And I must mention no use of cruise control here. That would surely have eaten 150 to 200km of economy up those hills.

[Hords]

hmmmm, I'm going from MEL to SYD next Saturday in the T. If I sit on 60 might make the creek crossing on one tank.

[malazn mafia]

Still reckon my gas-injected xr6t would of cost less to drive than the hyundai. Did syd to melb down the hume on just 2 tanks (85L) of gas. And the xr6t was by no means adhering to any speed limits (apart from seymour to melbourne).

[FTe342]

Originally Posted by hords

hmmmm, I'm going from MEL to SYD next Saturday in the T. If I sit on 60 might make the creek crossing on one tank.

You'll be surprised how good the 5.6L is on the hwy. Coming up from Melb I got 9.3L/100 on cruise at 110kph and then found out I had a shorting lead. Car now goes harder with lead replaced so what would the economy have been? These were actual figures used not trip meter
Will get a chance to find out soon as i am doing a round trip down to Rockie so about 660 klms return

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by EDManual

sat on 120km/h GPS speed in 110 zones

You drove that fast that far in a Hyundai ?....Give the man a medal!

(I rented an Elantra on my last holiday, and was constantly worried about any stray Pekinese that might wander in front and write it off!)

[kezzer]

Whats the big deal? It's alittle car, most small cars with small engines get good fuel economy.

[AUXRVIII]

Maroochy to Gold Coast and return in '98 Excel 3 door with family of 5, consumed no more than 20l of fuel sitting on atleast the posted speed limit.

[nugget378]

Have done Sydney-Gold Coast on one tank in an AU falcon with 5 up and luggage, around 900km, driving for economy (no cruise)
Certainly as good as or better than most 4 pots I have driven..

[GS608]

Originally Posted by kezzer

Whats the big deal? It's alittle car, most small cars with small engines get good fuel economy.

not when its revving its titties off

[TUF_302]

Originally Posted by hords

hmmmm, I'm going from MEL to SYD next Saturday in the T. If I sit on 60 might make the creek crossing on one tank.

Wheres the fun in that lol!!

[EDManual]

An elantra isnt a small car, its a medium car dont believe the classes of cars the Govt tells you. Its bigger than a focus etc. More like a honda accord. It weighs 1300kg plus I was carrying a few hundred kilos of load.

Worked out to be 6.3 litres per hundred.

I also know that AU 1's (forte and futura, nothing else) were fantastic on the Highways. Best wind drag coefficient by far Ford has had. Wasnt it .29 or so?. Its all about aerodynamics at speeds on the highways and an elantra has a great shape for that.
Also most small cars with good engines do not get good they have terrible boxy shapes . Look at toyotas. Corollas at the same speed use around 2 litres more per hundred! That is 8 litres per hundred 120 as against 6. A falcon uses less than a corolla on the highway. I have seen that for a fact. As does it use less than a carmry on the highway. If only they could have the cd of an AU again... Surely the highway economy of an FG would be in the 6's. Its already not that far off!

[EDManual]

Yep, most small cars are trying just a bit hard at highway speeds against the aerodynamics and that causes consumption to go bad realy quick.

Remember wheels or motor took a smart car from Melbourne to Perth and averaged something like 10 litres per hundred at 110km/h and had to get filled up every couple of hours. At 80km/h the consumption was 5 litres per hundred!

[BlackLS]

Well done with the Elantra. How many RPMs does it sit on at 120ks and how big is the tank.

NSW Hwy patrol on the Hume seem to be very fair - its mainly around Goulburn you need to be careful.

With the Focus I averaged 6.9L/100 kms but with using cruise control and I also let the GF drive for 150kms over the border - average speed of 111kmh. At 100kmh it sits on 3100 RPM, ~3900RPM at 120kmh , possibly because the Duratec is far from a torquey engine plus the Elantra has VCT with lift adjustment?

[BlackLS]

Originally Posted by EDManual

Yep, most small cars are trying just a bit hard at highway speeds against the aerodynamics and that causes consumption to go bad realy quick.

Remember wheels or motor took a smart car from Melbourne to Perth and averaged something like 10 litres per hundred at 110km/h and had to get filled up every couple of hours. At 80km/h the consumption was 5 litres per hundred!

Yep the big flat rear end of that car doesn't help with drag.

[EDManual]

The elantra sits on 3200 at 120kmh GPS speed, however I am running bigger higher profile tyres 205/65/15s as against 185 or 195/55 15s.
That adjustment has helped keep it in it favourite torquey area at 120ish.
With standard height tyres my speedo was reading 100 but gps speed around 94 but the odometer was correct, now the speedo is spot on 120 is 120, however 100km by my odometer is 105km by GPS! I have it all figured out anyway :-)

Having taller tyres has made acceleration slightly slower, but rally dirt road driving better! As I am not hitting junk underneath as much!

[EDManual]

The tank is 58 litres from dead empty to the brim, but its advertised at more like 50.

[BlackLS]

Yeah the Focus is advertised as 55L but it's next to impossible to start the car if you've gone 51L.

[MRJUCY]

I've done Sydney to Melbourne & back a couple of times in a Egas BA wagon & with a few passengers & luggage on board on a tank each way which has cost between $40 & $50 which I don't think many cars could match.
I've done Sydney to the Gold Coast on a tank in my TE50 too.

[GasoLane]

Well, if you want to brag how far you can go.........

My company vehicle can do Melb to Bris (appx 1800kms) without needing fuel along the way. :

[Yellow_Festiva]

That is a great result for your car. If you reduced your average speed by around 10% you prob could have gone a further 10-15%!

I did a very similar economy test and got from Syd to Toowoomba to Bris (1100km) in the Festiva and used the tank filled to the brim (around 34L) and a 20L jerry can. So a total of around 54L and 1100km = 4.9L / 100km.

Drove at around 95-100km/h and stopped the car with the fuel warning light just starting to flash (meaning there was another 50-70km in the tank).

Filled the car again to the top and got around 31L in.

That's getting close to hybrid / diesel consumption! I have also increased my tyre profile 1 size up to reduce the revs on the open road (where I do 80% of my driving).

Cheers

[Smoke Pursuit]

Gotta love people who drive at 95 - 100 on national highways.. You all excite me totally!! specially when im in a T650 Kenworth bdouble trying to snap 102....

[buggerlugs]

Originally Posted by bfiipursuit

Gotta love people who drive at 95 - 100 on national highways.. You all excite me totally!! specially when im in a T650 Kenworth bdouble trying to snap 102....

And I bet you hate caravans to...............

[chevypower]

I find a lot of modern 4 cyl cars can rev around 2000 rpm at freeway speeds on the cruise now. Done this with a couple of rentals at least. One being a Dodge Avenger, another was a VW Beetle. Both were 4 cyl cars. I am pretty sure at 70mph, the tacho was UNDER 2000rpm. So I don't believe that small cars have to rev it's guts outs on the freeway and get bad economy anymore. That doesn't mean I want to own a small car, it just means that argument isn't necessarily true anymore. Come to think of it, one of our work vehicles is a 2002 Camry 4 cyl, and that is also doing somewhere around 2000-2500 rpm on the freeway.

[kezzer]

I'm driving a stock pos lancer atm and I average 5 litres per 100km at 100km an hour.

Stock xr6 FG's Ive been told average 5-6 litres per 100km at 120km an hour.

I've seen a sv6 VE average 4.6l per 100km at 100km an hour with just a pod swap.

Hopefully if I get a FG it will be seeing similiar results to the VE with a CAI

[BlackLS]

Anything with Lucas electricals?

[BlackLS]

Originally Posted by BlackLS

Well done with the Elantra. How many RPMs does it sit on at 120ks and how big is the tank.

NSW Hwy patrol on the Hume seem to be very fair - its mainly around Goulburn you need to be careful.

With the Focus I averaged 6.9L/100 kms but with using cruise control and I also let the GF drive for 150kms over the border - average speed of 111kmh. At 100kmh it sits on 3100 RPM, ~3900RPM at 120kmh , possibly because the Duratec is far from a torquey engine plus the Elantra has VCT with lift adjustment?

Sorry this should be 3100 at 110, ~3450 at 120

[RG]

I'm going to close this just for the simple fact that you have said that you have sped (broken the law) numerous times in that first post.

We do not condone that sort of behaviour here at AFF. I would also reconsider posting up about performing illegal activities on a public forum.