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What's Your Ride?


Guest Bigfoot Hunter

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Deer bumper, hmm, may have to look into that. Just this last weekend, I was on my way up I-71 when I noticed movement at the guardrail not far ahead. Sure enough, over the rail comes a deer, then another... and then two more! I managed to scrub off enough speed to squeak past their rears but as I did so, I looked to the right and saw another deer standing on the other side of the rail that had not jumped. I swear our eyes locked as I went by. When I looked in the rearview, she had jumped the rail right in front of the vehicle two cars back. Last I saw of her she was spinning through the air towards the median. The whole thing was crazy. 10am - would have thought they'd be bedded down by then.

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Now that reminds me of an incident a Sister-in-Law's fiancee had, driving "the back way" between cities... hits a deer... thinks he damaged it enough to kill it, but it made it up off the road and into the treeline, so he steps about 10ft in to look for it, and something growls at him, so he changes his mind :D Anwyay makes me wonder if one predator or another or a booger is chasing deer onto roads deliberately.

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Guest BastetsCat

LOL, does staying at 60 help mileage? The Dart was hopeless.....4-7 mpg regardless of effort....unless you stomp it then it went in to gallons per mile useage :)

SWEET ride you got there......sad thing is something that nice I wouldn't wanna go anywhere it could get dirty!!!

Acording to my Grandfather (maternal) who worked for Phillips Petroleum for forever. A V8 engine idles at 60 mph. So 60-65 mph is the most advantageous speed for a V8 engine. slower speeds make an engine work harder, faster speeds make it guzzle gasoline. Then there is the tire size for the vehicle, to large a tire means that the engine has to work harder...less mph torque issue.

I have a GMC Suburban Sport Wagon...the 93 edition. When it runs...serious efforts by really bad EX-boyfriend to keep it from running...Grrrr. When it does run it gets around 20 mpg. doesn't set any speed records or anything and it is HUGE. It makes a good camping vehicle too because it sleeps two comfortably with gear. (Needs too much work right now though)

Now that reminds me of an incident a Sister-in-Law's fiancee had, driving "the back way" between cities... hits a deer... thinks he damaged it enough to kill it, but it made it up off the road and into the treeline, so he steps about 10ft in to look for it, and something growls at him, so he changes his mind :D Anwyay makes me wonder if one predator or another or a booger is chasing deer onto roads deliberately.

I have thought about that too. Crows do it with hard to crack nuts. I have seen a mountain lion do it,,,,intentional on the cats part???? who knows.

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Another factor is rear end gear ratio, which works in tandem with tire height to complete the rpm to velocity quotient. V-8's typically like to run bout 1500 rpm extensively. Smaller motors rev a bit more, and my v-10 dodge is red-lined at 4500 but idle is 1300 rpm (60 mph) unless I'm pulling the skidsteer ;)

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Well idle has nothing to do with mph. Idle means just that, it's idle. The RPM it sits at while in neutral/park and running. 800 rpms is where a lot of American V8's idle, give or take 100. Now 1500 rpms is a good thing to hold at speed for mpg, however engine vacuum at a given rpm is what you're looking for. The maximum vacuum generally gives you good mpg if I remember correctly. This is why turbo vehicles deliver good mpg out of boost, because they're in vacuum. Now, your rpm is dictated by your tire height at the drive axle, your gear ratio at the drive axle, and your final gear within your transmission. You see my Silverado sees 1500 at 60 mph with a 33 inch tall tire, a 4.10:1 gear ratio, and a .696:1 (call it .7:1) 4th gear in the trans. With this I can see between 17-19 mpg.But at 70 I'm seeing just over 2,000 rpm and 15.5 is the name of the game and a sad Colossus is seen by all, lol. There are a thousand different things that go into gas mileage and where an engine is making power and where it is efficient. Luckily my engine is probably seeing better than 350 lb ft at 1500 rpms so its not having a hard time keeping the truck going, especially with the torque multiplication the 4.10's offer.

If you aren't halfway familiar with motor vehicles your eyes probably just crossed.

Edited by Colossus
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Naw, I followed you...only thing you might want to add is cam lift/duration and where it lends itself to the powerband. Then head airflow has its role as well :)

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Oh sure but now we're REALLY getting into volumetric efficiency and a whole bunch of science gobbledy guck that most people don't think applies to something like cars. Pretty complex "air pumps" they are, lol.

I don't know that our discussion on such would do much for anyone else and I think we're really straying off course from the original topic, lol. But I'm glad to find a kindred spirit.

By the way, speaking of turbos making efficiency increase as well as power my parents just purchased an F-150 Ecoboost that actually out powers my 6.0 and gets better city mpg than I do on the highway. Its a twin turbo 3.5 V6!

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I'm just old enough to remember being able to work on my own cars and having enough room under the hood to do so! Now I'm down to oil/belt/tire changes and filling my wiper fluid. :(

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Sorry Colossus, got carried away as I reminised about my own wonder years. I've forgotten a lot of the technical stuff that made my beast go, just that I pumped the price of a new Corvette into the motor alone. Funny, when you're willing to spend that kinda moulla the folks from HotRod magazine find time to call you LOL I remember the cover of the feb 1998 issue had a guy in a demon mask sitting behind the wheel of a monster hemi ride with the nitrous purge valves activated for effect. The day the magazine arrived at my door, I was working on my inner fenders (aluminum, custom made) prepping the dumpster sized engine compartment when my phone rings. It was StageV engineering who I had bought the heads from; more specifically, the dude who was wearing the demon mask on the cover. I said, Whoa! I love them valve covers! Send me 'em but take that red paint out of the etching cuz my car's blue! LOL I paid $500 for those valve covers but they never leaked! I miss my car badly!

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If you can do belt changes on FWD you're a beast. I just refuse.

Yeah, I know my toys had all this "new" tech (thats 20 years old now, lol) but I sure miss my old toys. The truck does just fine, though. It has a ton of power, I'm just missing the nimbleness.

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Bobby-1.jpg

(Not my mule my gallery seems down on here at the moment)

The ultimate ATV that burns grass instead of gas.........

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