Rode With A PRO!

Today my wife and I were privileged to be instructed on the art of Hypermiling by one of the moderators here on PC who specializes in obtaining the best mileage from your Prius. The person who graced us with his knowledge was, none other than Prius Chat Moderator, and Hypermiling Expert, Dr. Evan Fusco, from Nixa, Mo., a town just South of Springfield, Mo.

We have had this in the works for several months, and now that we finally have a 2010 Prius, and my wife is gradually learning some teqniques, we thought it a good time to pursue some of the finer points on how to get better fuel economy.

We met Dr. Fusco at a Vietnamese restaurant at about 11:00AM, and he was waiting for us when we arrived. For a week the weather had been forcast to be perfect, needless to say, it was raining! After pleasantries, we initially went to his 2004 Blue Prius to see some of the instrumentation he'd added to his car, and to learn about the 4 Stages of Prius operation.

We learned that Stage 1 was VERY important, that's where the engine MUST come up to operating temperature before best milage can be attained. I'm NOT going to attempt explaining how and why the 4 Stages work, you will be MUCH better served by reading Dr. Fusco's Sticky Thread on how to obtain better fuel milage. Besides, who am I to try to explain something I've had 1 hour's experience with, and a total of 1 month Prius ownership, versus someone with over 5 years Prius experience and over 16,700 Posts on PC!

Dr. Fusco showed us his CAN View, and how it had been integrated into his Touch Screen, and ALL the information it was capable of imparting to him. The vast amount of information it could supply was IMPRESSIVE! He also showed and explained the many modifications he'd made to his Prius.

We then went for a ride in HIS car so he could show us the procedures for proper fuel economy, that way he'd be in a car he was familiar with, and he'd have his instrumentation to work with.

I was TOTALLY blown away within a quarter of a mile, his driving teqnique was NOTHING like I expected! He pulled out of the parking lot normally, and accelerated relatively briskly. I guess I had expected Hypermilers to accelerate at the rate of a great grandmother walking her 18 year old Malamute, and while accelerating, I thought cars would be passing, honking and giving the single finger salute! Dr. Fusco explained that he starts off briskly to about 25 MPH to keep the engine in the sweet spot of the ?RPM range, then once 25 MPH is reached he begins to decelerate to maintain that RPM, then slowly increases speed to that required. I asked if he was in a 45 MPH speed area what would he do, he answered...drive 45, and when asked how fast he drove on the Interstates that posted a 70 MPH, he said he usually drove 70! He told us he didn't shoot for the 90 MPG, like some Super Hypermilers could reach, but he regularly attained 75 MPG. A goal we should all shoot for, with the right instrumentation, it really looks doable.

Next, we returned to the restaurant and swapped his Gen 2 for our 2010 V with Technology Package. After the obligatory adjustments, we were off. When initially asked if it felt significantly different, he said not drastically. He said the Steering Wheel felt a little different, and probably due to the softer Tire air pressures in our 2010, the ride felt softer. He had said earlier that he ran about 50psi pressures in his Tires, and I had recanted that we were running about 37psi in the 2010, so the ride was softer. I mentioned that the V's steering was supposed to be a little quicker and the suspension had European tuning, he said the suspension felt somewhat tighter.

We began talking about various features, like the console, I'm not sure, but I think he could tolerate the console and didn't seem to mind the storage area under the bridge, saying that area was wasted anyway. One feature he did seem to like, was the Touch Tracer, finding it did take a slight amount of pressure to activate it, but saying it was really 'SWEET". When asked how the rear visibility was compared to Gen 2, he thought they were similar.

The drive itself lasted about 25-30 minutes and covered probably the same number of miles. My wife showed him the multitude of screens, Trip A/B, Energy Monitor, HSI and 1/5 Minute Average Fuel Mileage and Energy screens. Like most out there, Dr. Fusco wasn't terribly enamored with the Energy Monitor screen, but once he became acquainted with the HSI, I think he found it to be VERY usefull! The HSI could imulate some of the information available on his CAN View, though in a radically restricted format. I asked him if it drove very much differently than his and he said nothing dramatically different. He was impressed to find that the point at which the car could be driven on electric ONLY was now 46 vs. 41, he thought that a major improvement.

One of the most important things my wife learned was that before you could Pulse and Glide (P&G), was the car had to be stopped prior to P&Ging and that you had to exceed 35 MPH befor the engine would completely shut off, this we DID NOT KNOW!

Next, during our drive, he utilized all three driving modes, however, he said that being a Hypermiler, using the PWR mode went against everything he knew! We had started off in ECO, because that's the mode my wife drives in 99% of the time, and Dr. Fusco commented it did feel a little sluggish. So we then put it into Normal mode and he felt that felt more traditional, and YES, he did give it ONE good burst in PWR mode, and I think even as a Hypermiler, he was impressed, even though he told us at one point in his life, he'd been a lead footer!

Finally, we wanted him to try the Dynamic Radar Cruise Control (DRCC) and Lane Keep Assist (LKA). So we drove to a portion of the highway where those features could be performed. With the DRCC engaged, it demonstrated it's ability to stay separated by a set distance from the vehicle ahead, when another car pulled into our lane, and our car automatically slowed down, he seemed to think that was pretty cool. Next, he tried the LKA, and like my wife, took a few minutes to have it instill enough confidence in him to totally trust in it's ability to truly drive the car on it's own. But after only one set of lane departure warning beeps, he had absolutely NO difficulty, my wife told him she had trouble maintaining a light pressure on the wheel, he said he'd always been a lighthanded driver. In aLL honesty, I think Dr. Fusco found minimal usefulness for this feature. When I told him I thought it might work well for me, he said "why not", it'll keep itself in the road and put the brakes on if there's someone in front of you!

We then proceded back to the restaurant for a scrumptious meal of Beef broth, Buffalo Tails, Pigs Knockles & Marrow and boiled Buffalo Blood, it was a Vietnaumese restaurant, and Oh Yeah, Dr. Fusco was the ONLY one to eat LUNCH! We discussed the PC forum and it's many characters, along with more Prius topics.

It was an EXTREMELY rewarding experience and we enjoyed Dr. Fusco's company IMMENSELY, not to mention the wealth of information obtained.

To Dr. Fusco, a SINCERE THANKS for graciously giving us your time, knowlege and expertise. Again, Dr. THANK YOU!!!

David & LaDonna (aka Blind Guy {and wife})

 

Thank You Dr. Fusco,Your review on our car was too kind...The only thing we expect in return, is a ride in your new Tesla S!

So now my wife has looked at the Tesla Sedan S on their web site and now I am hearing rumblings of that car in the near future in our garage!

David (aka blind guy)