Hypermiling

Time to tighten up the belt. Regular gasoline at the HP Max in Ardmore, TN was listed at $3.79 per gallon this morning on my way to work. Luckily, I've always abhorred the SUV/Minivan market so at least I'm not stuck with a real gas hogging land yacht. Instead I've always opted for two door sporty cars instead. Not exactly a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla but better than a truck with a barrel of oil at $138+. I'm still in possession of the 1998 Camaro that is for sell but I'm driving a 2000 Camaro approximately 80 miles on my daily commute to Athens, AL.

Both GM F-Bodies are powered by 3800 Series V6's with automatic transmission and have provided good services over the years with gas mileage ranging from 25-30 mpg. The 2000 has around 145,000 miles on the odometer now and a change of plugs couldn't hurt. With gas prices continually rising and the less than stellar status of my bank account, I've decided to push the mileage as far as possible in a 3525 lb gasoline V6 powered vehicle.

I've been here before with a few other cars in the past just to make them practical to drive and that was when Super Unleaded was less than $1.50. Squeezing 15 mpg out of my 1970 Buick GS with a slightly warmed over Buick 350 took some careful observation of the vacuum gauge and a light foot. Luckily modern vehicles with fuel injection and overdrive trannies have many advantages in that area. After seeing an article on CNN.com, I've been visiting the CleanMPG Forums at http://www.cleanmpg.com. Although a lot of the material there is aimed at hybrids, there is still much information to be gleaned about any vehicle.

Unfortunately, my circumstances dictate that I drive the Camaro until the wheels fall off so my first efforts to stretch a gas buck will be purely with tire inflation and slowing down. I reduced my speed about 10 mph this morning and will be inflating my tires to about 40 psi when I get home. I'll top off my tank this afternoon so the great experiment will begin.