Just A Car Guy: What has no air conditioning, drives from Florida to California in the June of the hottest summer on record, and only uses one tank of fuel. Crazy people, but they did make it

Thursday, June 25, 2015

What has no air conditioning, drives from Florida to California in the June of the hottest summer on record, and only uses one tank of fuel. Crazy people, but they did make it

they used an ice suit to keep the driver cool... and stopped often to get more ice.

Here's how they went 2507 miles on a full 48.6 gallon tank...

only one person in the car to reduce weight,
no air conditioning equipment,
aerodynamics of a 300mph car (looks like McLaren design from the front),
and a 70 mpg rating from a VW 1.9-liter turbo-diesel inline four-cylinder motor that is good for around 220 hp rwhp

Result? An average of 66.7 miles per gallon at an average speed of 67.6 mph, reaching a top speed of 91.1 mph and only consumed 37.6 gallons

Transmisson Audi 6 speed
3 gears from 3.5 to 1.3, then 3 overdrive gears taller than usual, at .87 to .56,
The final gear ratio is said to be 3.875
The stat page doesn't mention the gears between trans and tires
tires - Front: 245/40-18 Rear: 255/40-19
Car weight dry - 2100 pounds

Instead of only putting 10 gallons of fuel in at a time, they started in Florida with a full tank. I don't think that's a good idea, as a gallon of fuel is about 8 pounds, and every 10 gallons is most of a hundred pounds. Starting a cross country trip with a full tank is carrying an extra 360 pounds you don't need to and hurting your mileage for 90% of the trip.