slobin@ucbvax.UUCP (Dan I. Slobin) (04/04/84)
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There have been discussions of MPGs for individual cars and RPM ranges
in this group recently, but none giving tips for actually saving gas.
How about it? What do you do to save gas? Please send all your
gas-saving tips to me and I'll post a summary to the group.
UUCP: {most major machines}!ucbvax!ucbkim!slobin
CSNET: slobin@BERKELEYan@hou2h.UUCP (A.NGUYEN) (04/05/84)
A while back, Rod & Truck ran a piece on BMW's official gas saving technique: accelerate HARD but shift EARLY. Presumably the idea is to operate the engine near its peak efficiency range, ie. full throttle, while avoiding high rpm's. I tried accelerating under 3/4 to full throttle AND shifting at 3000 rpm, and results are terribly ho-hum. Not bad, mind you, just not significantly better than anything else. Any Bimmer fanatics care to comment? Au
jlw@ariel.UUCP (04/05/84)
The BMW technique called for accelerating hard up to 2000 rpm only and then shifting. The ETA engine in the 528e and what I pre- sume is in the recently advertized 325e uses this principle. It is tuned for plenty of low speed torque, high mileage, and low red-line. The red line on the 528e is of the order of 4700 rpm (shades of beetles :-)) and don't try upping it or you'll bend some valves. They weakened the valve springs to lower the drag. Sigh. Joseph L. Wood, III AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Holmdel (201) 834-3759 ariel!jlw
jeff@dual.UUCP (04/06/84)
> The BMW technique called for accelerating hard up to 2000 rpm only > and then shifting. The ETA engine in the 528e and what I pre- > sume is in the recently advertized 325e uses this principle. > It is tuned for plenty of low speed torque, high mileage, and > low red-line. The red line on the 528e is of the order of 4700 > rpm (shades of beetles :-)) and don't try upping it or you'll bend > some valves. They weakened the valve springs to lower the > drag. Sigh. All to true about the 325e that just came out. If you want some real excitment try asking your BMW dealer about the 323I - the fast version of the 318I. The 323I has 6-cylinders under the hood but no "economy" tag stuck on it anywhere. I think price is around 18 to 22K. If you really want a fast Bimmer there is a place in Florida called Performance Plus+ which offers an upgraded 533I called something like the "Hartge H5S" which delivers 237 HP (!!!). Even out here in Calif it would be around 200 HP! Price for this one is around 32K... Jeff Houston Dual Systems Corp., Berkeley, CA {ucbvax,ihnp4,cbosgd,amd70,zehntel,fortune,decwrl}!dual!jeff