Michael Hargreave Mawson wrote:
> The figure of 50.6 mpg at a
> steady cruising speed of 50 mph was published by "Autocar" shortly after
> the 1500 was launched.
Ah. Not to diminish the figures, but "steady state" speed
at 50mph is something else.The figure is useful to know but
unless you meantion that figure is for "at 50mph" it could
be quite deceptive.
> 4-speed manual gearbox (no O/D)
> Urban driving 29.4 mpg / 9.6 litres/100km
>
> 4-speed manual gearbox & O/D
> Urban driving 28.7 mpg / 9.8 litres/100km
This seems more inline to what listers are reporting,
most listers seem to do a little worse but I like to
think it's because the listers are such "spirited
drivers". ;>
> In other words, an O/D actually costs you more in fuel in urban driving
Does the spitfire of that year come with a different
axle ratio when you have overdrive?
I guess I'm a little surprised that the OD could cost
that much mileage, considering it's easily spun by
hand and easily carried.
> Even basing your calculations on the US gallon, a standard UK-spec
> Spitfire 1500, straight from the factory or showroom, should give you 42
> or 44 mpg on the freeway, depending on whether it has an overdrive or
> not. Pump your tyres up a bit, and you might get even closer to that
> magical 50 mpg!
A good data point, but I don't think mpg@50mph is the most
useful figure to state, since the rest of the world is thinking
of combined fuel economy figures, which are obviously much
lower.
At a true 50mpg it would make it sound like the Spit is
among the most economical cars on the road, when the true
figure puts it way way way down there. ;>
--
Trevor Boicey, P. Eng.
Ottawa, Canada, tboicey@brit.ca
ICQ #17432933 http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/
All chart listings approximate.
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