HIGHWAY ROAD TEST

[marshtex2]

My long trip was a little over 1,300 miles (odometer 1315, Garmin GPS 1327 miles) but it was a hard driving test, not striving for the utmost in mpg and over some rugged  mountains. 

 

From El Paso to I-40 near Kingman, AZ via Globe and Phoenix was mostly on cruise control at 60 mph and got 41.2 mpg measured the old fashioned way.  The C-Max 'puter said 42.3.  Note that the odometer said 564 miles, the Garmin GPS said 575 miles which calculates to 42.0 mpg.  About 35 miles out on a slightly uphill run the C-Max told me there was 20 miles to empty then several miles on up the road, level to slightly downhill, it told me 37 miles to go. So I figured it was a good shot to go on to the Petro truck stop.  That is about 570 miles on one tank and it took 13.7 gallons to fill with a second top-up click off, glad I didn't try to go much farther.

 

Then I ducked around Las Vegas to Parumph, NV, into Death Valley and up into the high Sierras at Lone Pine, CA.  That went from 2700 ft. at Parumph, over the pass and down to -231 ft. in Death Valley, back to 4500 ft. at the Panamint pass down to 1500 ft. in the next valley, easily hit 131 mph, GPS, going down through there and didn't even max out, then up steep switchbacks to 3700 ft. at Lone Pine.  Going up US-395 gets to nearly 7000 ft., down to 6400 ft. at Bridgeport  then to 9624 ft. over Sonora pass.  That leg of the trip included a full throttle acceleration to 90 mph, and down to 10 to 20 mph going over Sonora pass, 10 to 20% grades, and returned 37.8 odometer mpg with the C-Max saying 39.9.  Then an easy drive on to near San Francisco.  The C-Max ICE really does the job well and the car, suspension, etc., felt fine at those high speeds.  Incidentally, 51 psi (tire label max) air in the tires.  Note that the odometer gives about 1.5 % less miles than the GPS and the speedometer about 4% high; 60 mph on the speedometer gets 57.5 to 58 mph on the GPS.

Edited October 9, 2013 by marshtex2

[drdiesel1]

My long trip was a little over 1,300 miles (odometer 1315, Garmin GPS 1327 miles) but it was a hard driving test, not striving for the utmost in mpg and over some rugged  mountains. 

 

From El Paso to I-40 near Kingman, AZ via Globe and Phoenix was mostly on cruise control at 60 mph and got 41.2 mpg measured the old fashioned way.  The C-Max 'puter said 42.3.  Note that the odometer said 564 miles, the Garmin GPS said 575 miles which calculates to 42.0 mpg.  About 35 miles out on a slightly uphill run the C-Max told me there was 20 miles to empty then several miles on up the road, level to slightly downhill, it told me 37 miles to go. So I figured it was a good shot to go on to the Petro station.  That is about 570 miles on one tank and it took 13.7 gallons to fill, glad I didn't try to go much farther.

 

Then I ducked around Las Vegas to Parumph, NV, into Death Valley and up into the high Sierras at Lone Pine, CA.  That went from 2700 ft. at Parumph, over the pass and down to -231 ft. in Death Valley, back to 4500 ft. at the Panamint pass down to 1500 ft. in the next valley, hit 131 mph going down through there, then up to 3700 ft. at Lone Pine.  Going up US-395 gets to nearly 7000 ft., down to 6400 ft. at Bridgeport  then to 9624 ft. over Sonora pass.  That leg of the trip included a full throttle acceleration to 90 mph, and down to 10 to 20 mph going over Sonora pass, 10 to 20% grades, and returned 37.8 odometer mpg with the C-Max saying 39.9.  Then an easy drive on to near San Francisco.  The C-Max ICE really does the job well and the car, suspension, etc., felt fine at those high speeds.  Incidentally, 51 psi (tire label max) air in the tires.

Sweet! My 2013 BMW R1200GS Adventure only gets about 40 mpg on those roads :)

Edited October 9, 2013 by drdiesel1

[HPRifleman]

..., hit 131 mph going down through there, ...

 

Boy, you were really flying!

[fbov]

... hit 131 mph going down through there and didn't even max out, ...

 

Boy, you were really flying!

 That's not the half of it...

C/D TEST RESULTS:

Zero to 60 mph: 8.8 sec

Zero to 100 mph: 23.8 sec

Rolling start, 5–60 mph: 8.6 sec

Standing ¼-mile: 16.7 sec @ 86 mph

Top speed (governor limited): 118 mph (emphasis added)

Braking, 70–0 mph: 191 ft

Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad*: 0.77 g

*Stability-control-inhibited

 

Given Car and Driver measures speed directly, I have to wonder how steep a hill you needed to get those last 13 mph after the drive train cut out... or did it?

 

Have fun,

Frank

[marshtex2]

fbov, thanks for all the C/D data, hadn't seen it before.

 

It didn't feel like anything cut out and I don't think the slope was so steep that rolling alone could get up to that speed.  From the 4500 ft. summit the road is a straight line, over 10 miles, down to the 1500 ft. valley elevation then stays straight a few miles up the west side before the switchbacks.  Seeing 130 mph come up I quit pushing it as above 110 or so ground/wind suction effects can start lifting the rear and I didn't want to explore that. 

 

I was too focused on driving to get distracted into looking what the Scangauge said for mpg or engine rpm at the top speed.  My C-Max had gotten the fix so that EV stays engaged beyond 65 mph and I've seen it on EV up over 75 - 80 but don't know how far up EV will go.

[drdiesel1]

EV will run to 85 mph!