which is more economical?

Morba · 8 Jun 2006 at 00:19

say your doing a journey, all 1 road.

is it more economical to:

get to optimum cruising speed as fast as possible then cruise at the best speed for economy

or

slowy get to the most economic speed then cruise

I know that distance will have a factor, but how for for it to make a difference?

Foghorn Leghorn · 8 Jun 2006 at 00:21

I usually get upto cruising speed as quick as possible, dont know if its more economical though. Probably not much in it either way.

Fog

ajgoodfellow · 8 Jun 2006 at 00:46

I would have thought it would be better to slowly increase to your crusing speed as accelerating rapidly uses a lot of fuel

hsp70 · 8 Jun 2006 at 00:51

yes, slowly building up the speed is more economical than flooring it to get to speed.

Morba · 8 Jun 2006 at 11:23

it uses more fuel but for less time, then cruises for longer. where as doing it slowly uses less fuel than the other option, but for a longer period of time.

excaliborg · 8 Jun 2006 at 11:24

the latter as flooring it will have the throttle wide open even when the engine is at slow speeds.

-westy- · 8 Jun 2006 at 11:27

Probably cruising slowly up to speed.

Personally I just floor it up to cruising speed, then just knock it into 5th

It probably doesn't matter either way.

jumpy · 8 Jun 2006 at 12:14

Didn't Top Gear do some test to check this? (maybe fith gear?)
ragg it until you reach 30mph or whatever your cruising speed is going to be, then stick it in a high gear at lower revs... :confused:

siztenboots · 8 Jun 2006 at 12:24

I would have thought run a petrol engine flat out *** for cc efficiency in as big a gear without the engine labouring, skipping every other gear, ie. 2 -> 4 -> 6

triggerthat · 8 Jun 2006 at 13:02

siztenboots said:
I would have thought run a petrol engine flat out *** for cc efficiency in as big a gear without the engine labouring, skipping every other gear, ie. 2 -> 4 -> 6

When you skip a gear, you have to put your foot down. Even though the engine wont be reving high, you are still uses a lot of petrol to bring the car upto speed.