My self and toyotechwv did some autocross runs in our Prii today, so thought we'd compare fuel economy while we were at it. Reset both averages when we left the meeting spot. When we arrived at Virginia Tech for the autocross: After running 4 runs during the autocross and preparing to head home: After arriving back in Princeton: There ya have it folks! :rockon: Few pics from the autocross:
Cool. Yowza... it looks like the Priuses have a lot of body roll and suspension travel. I've never autocrossed but I'd have brought my Z instead. It says pretty flat in turns.
The white Prius stays very flat in corners with Eibach springs, larger front sway bar, TRD rear sway bar and a c-pillar brace. He also has 225-50-15 r-comps mounted on those Corolla wheels. The red one doesn't have any suspension parts....yet.
Wow. Ran 'em pretty hard, huh? Those *are* pretty huge front end dives, didn't quite realize the ground clearance could shrink quite that much. . Did you leave 'em in "B" for the runs, or stay in "D" and let the engine thrash on startup/shutdown? . _H*
awesome photos Have you recorded any other data? I mean f.e. 1/4 mile time, skid pad, slalom speed, "overtake" acceleration, etc.? I've spend few years in my Gen2'04, and last month, I drove a few hours in Gen3, but I'm _very_ disappointed with Gen3 performance. As I feel, Gen3 is slight slower and suspension is not as hard as my Gen2 (EU Version). Best Regards! Dominik
Ran my car in B mode with PWR mode engaged, Paul ran in B mode and inspection mode to disable trac which did drag down his car as well as mine. I didn't have nice grippy r-compound tires like he did so I left trac engaged. I drag race in 1/8th mile. I've reset my averagen the staging lanes, ran my 1/8mile pass and average mid to upper 30mpg's during my runs by the time I get back to my parking spot. Those are Drag DR-33 17" x 7.5" with Kumho Ecsta SPT's in 215-45-17. They weigh less then stock 17's and are significantly cheaper.
You guys lost because the MPG is not as low as Jeremy Clarkson's 17.2 MPG. One has to wonder what he did to get that low.
The driver ran in one of two modes: Max acceleration - puts the 1.5L engine in an inefficient space where the mixture is enriched to avoid overheating the catalytic converter. Max brake - to the point of if not using ABS. This exceeds the regen capability so the brake heat up. The car was most likely, always alternating between these extremes. For good measure, they may have: Driven in "B" to maximize energy loss during braking Run AC at maximum with as many other power draining modes as possible (aka., lights on high-beam) Adjusted the toe, front and rear for maximum stability (aka., tire wear) drifting turns - difficult but not impossible, sideways tire motion is the same as braking lots of oil - Oh, yea, really make sure there is plenty of oil in that engine . . . the good stuff too . . . straight 40 or 50 weight wonderful ethanol gas - Oh yea, perhaps a flex-fuel mix for good measure start test with cold engine - the colder the better Bob Wilson
No, surely Top Gear would not resort to such tactics..........?! Maybe they just put it in neutral, popped a brick on the accelerator, and went off for a cup of tea?
I thought he drove with the parking brake engaged. Thanks to the OP to show that Prius can get pretty good mpg in extreme conditions.
