Dadhawk's FR-S (6AT Firestorm)

[Dadhawk]

(Fuel mileage updated in the OP)

Originally Posted by PERRIN_Chris

Man that's awesome mileage! I've been trying to tell my wife how much better MPGs I'd get with a BRZ. She's still not having any of it. It will be mine though one day!

Had to fill the tank this morning, and had some interesting results.

Most painful, was this is the most I've paid for fuel with the FRS at $4.25 a gallon. On the bright side, since the differential between 87 and 93 remains a constant, as the price goes up 93 becomes "cheaper", at least that's what I tell myself.

This was my highest "commuting" tank in terms of miles (369.8) and MPG at 34.12MPG. My only higher MPG result was 34.62 which was more highway miles. I think the change was traffic has been better these last couple of weeks, which means more of my commute is at highway speeds. (55 or so). Perhaps the cooler temperatures contributes as well.

The onboard computer edged up another 0.1 to 32.1MPG lifetime compared to my calculated 31.82 (up from 31.68).

[Dadhawk]

(Fuel numbers updated in OP, last tank 30.2MPG, lifetime 31.74 at 6262 miles. Gas price dropped $0.16 between tanks, that was a nice thing.)

I was traveling this week on business and had a rental car. I was pleasantly surprised to be assigned a nice shiny red, VW Jetta. Now, that said, I would have preferred the nice, shiny red Camaro convertible that was parked next to it add Avis but you take what you can get.

It's been a long time since I drove or even really paid much attention to a Jetta. I was surprised at how nice looking a car it was, particularly in red which seemed to accentuate the lines of the car. I was also surprised at how well it rode, and drove. I got to spend some quality time with it, driving from Tampa to Ft. Lauderdale FL across Alligator Alley and was quite satisfied with the experience even in a blinding rain storm.

That's in no way to say it matched up to the FR-S, but as a general point A to point B car, I could have lived with it. It was the first (corporate) rental car in a long time I've driven that I can honestly say I enjoyed driving.

After a week away, it was definitely nice to be back in the FR-S cockpit this morning though!

[RYU]

Dadhawk, apologies if I missed this bit of info but what kind of range do you reckon you can squeeze out of a full tank? We both have similar driving patterns but i've been too chicken shit to try. I only have 1000 miles on mine but have generally been filling up once a week because it's convenient, not because I was near empty.

Thoughts?

[Spd229]

Originally Posted by RYU

Dadhawk, apologies if I missed this bit of info but what kind of range do you reckon you can squeeze out of a full tank? We both have similar driving patterns but i've been too chicken shit to try. I only have 1000 miles on mine but have generally been filling up once a week because it's convenient, not because I was near empty.

Thoughts?

I know I'm not the avian father figure, but I would say 400 without worrying unless your dash average is telling you otherwise. I had 384 miles yesterday and put 11.7 gallons in the tank. Most of that was highway though or 60/40.

If you're full highway, I'd be willing to say 450 miles or so. I'm sure the next time I run to Florida and back I'll see what I can do without filling up as one way the trip is 220~ miles.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by RYU

Dadhawk, apologies if I missed this bit of info but what kind of range do you reckon you can squeeze out of a full tank? We both have similar driving patterns but i've been too chicken shit to try. I only have 1000 miles on mine but have generally been filling up once a week because it's convenient, not because I was near empty.
Thoughts?

The most I've gotten out of a single tank is 380 miles, and it took 11.002 gallons to fill the tank (34.62MPG). At that point the fuel light was not yet on but I was below a 1/4 tank, and it was a road trip. That was at 70+MPH highway speeds with about 50 miles of 2 lane mountain road driving thrown in.

I could probably do better mileage wise particularly on road trips, but I am not much of a hypermiler. Given my last DD got an average of around 17MPG being able to consistently almost double that and drive like I want isn't much of an incentive to try to do better!

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Spd229

I know I'm not the avian father figure....

You made me laugh with that one, thanks! I may have to have a T made with that on it. Real meaning behind the name here.

Originally Posted by Spd229

, but I would say 400 without worrying unless your dash average is telling you otherwise. I had 384 miles yesterday and put 11.7 gallons in the tank. Most of that was highway though or 60/40.

If you're full highway, I'd be willing to say 450 miles or so. I'm sure the next time I run to Florida and back I'll see what I can do without filling up as one way the trip is 220~ miles.

That is pretty consistent with what I'm seeing on highway trips. I think I could get 400+ out of it if I tried, but as noted above, I just can't help myself!

[RYU]

I laughed with the "avian father figure.." comment also. Haha

Thanks for the input gents. The reason I ask is because after driving my previous daily I was able to get a very consistent 220-235 in the city and 260-275 on the hwy (17mpg and a small tank is no good!). It made it easy to manage my petrol stops. What is a bit odd on my previous daily (Toyota Tacoma) was, according to the gas gauge, i'd get about 180-190 miles on the 1st half of the tank and the balance on the 2nd half of the tank on long trips. It was not proportional at all and if you weren't aware of that nuance, you'd grossly mismanage your gas stops.

I ask about the range in our cars not because of hypermiling (i'm not a fan of that practice either) but because I was recently on a long trip and based on my crappy memory I was at about 300 miles with about 1/4 left on the tank. I wasn't sure how much range I had left. We were traveling thru Utah and Arizona on the I70 so it's a bunch of desert out there, yet I was also on a time crunch of sorts.

380-400 is a good ballpark me thinks with some cushion to spare. That's still almost twice as much as my previous daily

thank you!

btw... I really like that with the BRZ i'm now filling up once a week because it's convenient and not every 4-5 days out of necessity. Nothing is worse than after a hard day at work to stop by the petrol station twice a week!

[RYU]

Have any of you folks seen any good threads comparing mpg after improving tire compounds and possibly increasing tire width?

Any thoughts on that front? I'm thinking of upgrading to a set of 18" wheels with Dunlop Star Specs, Nitto NT-05, or even lower like Hankook Ventus V12s. However, I would consider a dedicated "track" set if it meant a significant decrease in mpg. I have no idea how efficient these Michelin Primacy tires are. They certainly are noisy...

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by RYU

What is a bit odd on my previous daily (Toyota Tacoma) was, according to the gas gauge, i'd get about 180-190 miles on the 1st half of the tank and the balance on the 2nd half of the tank on long trips. It was not proportional at all and if you weren't aware of that nuance, you'd grossly mismanage your gas stops...

You may already know this, but the discrepancy in the fuel gauge at the top is usually worse in a larger vehicle than a smaller one, at least in my experience. The reason being is the filler tube. The gauge is usually working off a float or a capacitive type "sender" in the tank. It reads "Full" at the point the fuel is at the top of the tank, or possibly somewhere below the top of the tank, particularly for "floating type" senders where the float will come in contact with the top of the tank before fuel does.

However, that isn't where we stop filling the tank. We typically stop at the top of the filler tube. The longer the tube, the more "extra fuel" you are carrying that you have to burn off to get off of full.

My old Chevy Astro, for example, had a 27GAL tank + another 1.5GAL in the filler, but showed "Full" at around 24 Gallons. So, potentially I would have to burn 4 to 5 gallons of fuel (almost 100 miles on the highway) just to get to "Full".

Just my observation.

[RYU]

That makes perfect sense. I suppose the manufacturers played it safe here. A little reserve never hurt anybody

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by RYU

Have any of you folks seen any good threads comparing mpg after improving tire compounds and possibly increasing tire width?

Any thoughts on that front? I'm thinking of upgrading to a set of 18" wheels with Dunlop Star Specs, Nitto NT-05, or even lower like Hankook Ventus V12s. However, I would consider a dedicated "track" set if it meant a significant decrease in mpg. I have no idea how efficient these Michelin Primacy tires are. They certainly are noisy...

No real thoughts here, well outside any level of expertise I have. You might want to post it as a question in the tire tech forum and see if anyone pops up an answer.

[Sovran]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

That is pretty consistent with what I'm seeing on highway trips. I think I could get 400+ out of it if I tried, but as noted above, I just can't help myself!

I filled up yesterday at 400mi exactly, which made me think of this post. I put in 11.444 gallons, for an average of 34.95 gallons. About 80% of the tank was used during a road trip into the mountains and back, mostly on 55mph-70mph highways. The remaining 20% of the tank was used on my usual city commute. As you said, I think if the whole trip had been on highways, I could have done significantly better on both range and mileage.

[Dadhawk]

(Fuel Mileage updated in OP. Now 31.94 lifetime at 6927.4 miles)

My daily commute accounts for probably 90% of the miles I put on my FR-S. I made a change in my home-bound route 3 of the last 4 weeks. The drive is 12.8 miles longer, but takes about 15 minutes less on average because there is more highway speed, fewer lights on the other streets and less chance of traffic jams as I'm going against traffic.

As it turns out though, I'm also getting much better fuel economy. I went from averaging around 30MPG per tank to where I'm now around 34MPG. My previous route took 1.13 gallons per commute and the new one takes 1.37 gallons per commute.

It's not quite an even trade-off fuel-wise but it's close enough. The time alone is reason enough for me to change but its nice to see that the trade-off isn't costing my huge in the wallet.

And, yes, I know I'm not calculating in a lot of other additional costs from wear/tear, etc with the additional 48 miles per week (I typically commute 4 days) but I'll enjoy the extra 1 hour a week not in traffic!

Anybody else got a story of how you drive further to get to your destination quicker?

[RYU]

I spent the last ~1500 miles on the stock 215/45/17 Primacy HP tires. My first few tank fulls yielded approx 33-34mpg babying the motor upon break-in. However, my last tank was spent with some moderate to hard canyon driving at 3000-6000ft altitude. That yielded approx 28-29mpg (not bad at all).

I've since upgraded to a set of wheels running 225/40/18 in front and 245/35/18 in the rears at about 1-1.5lbs heavier per wheel. This yields a wider contact patch on both ends and therefore marginally more friction area (typically lower mpg as a result). Though this size difference only accounts for 1.88% and 0.57% in increased rolling diameter which is virtually negligible. I'll report back what kind of mpg differences I notice with this new tire/wheel setup.