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100 MPG
By Scott Harrup | June 30, 2008
USA Today recently featured Louis Hudgin of Gilbert, Ariz., and other members of a growing subculture in America—hypermilers.
These highway pioneers seek out innovative tactics to nudge their fuel efficiency upward. For Hudgin, the 88 miles per gallon his 2000 Honda Insight hybrid clocked during the USA Today report was “pitiful.” He regularly cracks the 100-mpg barrier.
88 miles per gallon? I’m lucky to get into the upper teens when driving our minivan around the city.
But hypermilers pursue some unorthodox methods in order to achieve extraordinary results. Hudgin is willing to drive in Arizona’s heat with his air conditioner turned off and his windows barely cracked. (FYI: Opening your windows all the way while turning off your air conditioner doesn’t save fuel because it increases your car’s wind resistance.)
Other tricks include: coasting or even turning off the engine when approaching a stop sign or light (a tactic strongly discouraged by many car manufacturers for safety reasons); driving off center in a traffic lane to avoid worn ruts; overinflating tires; finding parking spaces you don’t have to back out of; and driving well under posted highway speed limits.
Hypermilers who use hybrid vehicles get the best results. But the same tricks can be applied to any gas-guzzler for a more limited benefit. So, while I’ll never get anywhere near 100 mpg in my van, I can use their methods to perhaps nudge our family into the mid-twenties.
I get similar benefits if I follow the example of people who are aces in other disciplines. I can go to Olympian Dan Browne’s Web site and get his input on how to run more competitively even though I’ll never break a 4-minute (7-minute?) mile. I can snag cooking advice from Springfield chef Chad Isom even though no one will ever ask me to lead a culinary school. (By the way, you’ll want to read upcoming articles on Browne and Isom in the August 10 and August 17 Evangels.)
At a more fundamental level, I can spend time in Bible study or with people whose faith example I respect and find guidelines for living with eternal significance.
Talk about increasing your mileage.
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