There used to be months where I would fuel up 4 or 5 times. Why is that I wonder? I blame the fast and the furious movies, growing up in the tricked out rice burner era or generation, and being a guy who likes the sounds of race cars and who will do anything to turn his car into a race car. My Integra GS-R has a loud exhaust. It’s about 2.5 to 3 inches round. It basically sets off any car alarm and my house alarm a few times. So I would make sure to leave my car in third gear for as long as possible. In third gear, my car is turning about 3,500 rpm’s. I’ll cover RPM’s later in this article. I would even drop down my gears as I came to a stop. Like Indy Cars do when then need to slow down. When I moved to Vegas, I would cruise the strip and drive the length of the boulevard in 1st – 3rd gear. Mostly to annoy tourists and scare people who were not paying attention. I’ll even add in that I liked to hear my exhaust bounce off the hotels. Now that is not illegal to do (yet), but it does draw attention to yourself. It took me quite a while to realize what I was doing was more than childish, pathetic and down right causing damage to my engine.
A few years ago I got into Nascar. I am now way, way into Nascar. I started watching, attending and learning about races as much as possible. Well one day, I was watching the race at Pocono. It’s a 2 mile track located in Pennsylvania. It’s one of the longest races, and they race it 2 times in 2 months during the regular schedule. This race is long, but the secret to winning the race is fuel mileage. Meaning that if you can stay in the lead, and keep your foot consistently on the gas with out using more than you need to, you can stay out longer. It’s all about being in a constant mode. Think of driving a long road trip using your cars cruise control. The Nascar racers even go as far as turning off the car during caution laps (caused by wrecks or debris on the track). This puts the leader in front of the competition because they do not need to pit (stop) for fuel or tires. Well I started thinking about how I could apply that to my life. And then I had a realization. If you drive down hill, you can put your cars transmission in neutral and coast. That was a huge discovery for me.
See, when you car is in neutral, your motor is only rotating 750 – 1,100 times per minute, or known as RPM’s. If your car were to be in gear while you are descending downhill, your car is turning anywhere from 2,400 rpm’s to 6,000 RPM’s. That number really depends on the cars year, make and model that you drive and if it is a stick shift or automatic transmission. If you think of RPM’s as if they were miles, would you rather run 1,100 miles or 6,000 miles? Neither is the correct answer because How I Met Your Mother Is On T.V. Right Now and I should be watching as I write this. But You get my point. So if your car is turning less RPM’s, you save gas and money. I want to state a point, it is not a fact, but it’s pretty close to being a fact. If you drive faster, you get to your destination faster. Your car is also turning more RPM’s and you have to use more brake to slow down the momentum of your cars inertia. If you were to drive slower, you turn less RPM’s, resulting in using less gas, less brake and you get to your destination a few minutes later. My point is that we all want to save money. Our society is driven by what is in the media. The media is telling the American Electorate that the only way to save money is to change your insurance policy and buy organic food. There are more than enough ways to save money. You just need to think things through a little bit. That is why I am writing this article.
The last thing I want to point out to you is this. Every time you step hard on the gas, Your fuel injectors spray more gas. Think of it like a squirt bottle. The more pressure and force you put into squeezing the trigger, more water comes out. It’s the same thing with the gas peddle in your car. So when you mash the gas when the light turns green, you use more gas. Or when someone is going slower than you and you mash the gas to go around them, your only causing your motor and wallet to stress, not to mention your road rage increases. So if you were to press lightly on the gas peddle when accelerating, and put your car in neutral while going down hill causing your car to coast instead of being under power the entire time, you can save a lot of money in gas and repairs.
What I want my readers to get from this is very clean and clear. Use less gas by using less pressure on the gas pedal, and you can save money. In fact, anytime you are not on the gas, you are saving money. With gas prices being above $3.00 around the country, you’ll defiantly think about that more.
Now that I have taken the time to inform you, Go read my good Partner in Crime’s article on the Nevada Sagebrush website. She is amazing and talks about many different issues.