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Over the years there have been quite a few inquiries regarding what kind of gas mileage a FI type 3 should be expected to get. I've always been pretty insistent that it wasn't all that good, based on my experience over the past 30 years that my '68 got into the mid to high 20s but everything since that was in the low 20s. Some of you have taken me to task for that, and I've slowly come to the realization that one thing that has changed since I first drove my '68 has been my general speed. Dave Hall has a road test showing gas mileage as a function of road speed, and it pretty much correlates with my numbers. This has all lead me to wonder what would be the outcome if I took a trip and limited myself to lower speeds. This weekend I took 2 trips and did 2 tests. Each trip was a round trip, so this should even out effects of wind and elevation. Both days were nice beautiful days with temps in the low 70s and little wind, perfect days for a nice drive. Saturday: I drove down into northern Illinois. Quite a few county highways and some freeway driving. I tried to limit myself to 60 mph. Some driving was in towns and was slower. 1st fillup: 215 miles 7.23 gallons 29.7 mi/gal (more downwind) 2nd fillup 102 miles 3.74 gallons 27.2 mi/gal (more upwind) Saturday's round trip totals: 317 miles 10.97 gallons 28.9 mi/gal (round trip) Sunday I drove north from Madison to pick up some type 3 parts (see my other post.) This time I allowed myself to go 65, but there were still some stretches of 60 and even 55, as well as some in-town driving. Sunday's single fillup: 90 miles 3.36 gallons 26.7 mi/gal I'm not sure that I believe that the difference between 60 and 65 mi/hr should make an 8% difference in gas mileage, but maybe Dave can check out his road test report and tell us if they concur. I found that driving this slowly was a real chore. I'm just not used to going this slowly, and at 60 mi/hr, I really was an annoyance to other drivers. At 65 I didn't feel in the way, so this might be a good speed to travel at, when I have the time to spend so I can save some gas. It is very interesting to see that I must now blame most all of my past poor mileage scores on my own driving habits. -- ******************************* Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, Wisconsin, USA ******************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~