SaabsUnited.com

Today, our local Saab club had an economy run from Hobart to Derwent Bridge.
First of all, I want to thank you all for your hypermiling tips and emails the other day. My first action this morning was to empty the car of almost all the stuff I didn’t need. I was running short of time, so I left a few papers and things in there.
But out went the spare tire, a box of MX-5 parts in the back seat and Monte parts from the boot. My spare is a brand new looking Pirelli P6000, by the way. Very good.
Next I headed down to the local service station and pumped the tyres up to 45 pounds per corner. It was a little daunting as I did it, considering I had 300+ kilometers ahead of me and no spare.
The only other preparations for the morning were a recap of the tips you all offered. So with that, we were off.
Here’s the map again:

On the way there, I employed all of the suggestions as well as I could remember them. I took Saabjohan’s suggestion about getting up to speed normally and then worked the gears and did as much cruising as I could on downhill sections.
I was as conservative as I felt necessary and averaged around 80 km/h or less for this leg of the trip.
My odometer read 164 kilometers by the time we got to the Derwent Bridge hotel for lunch and when I refilled the car there, I had used 12.9 litres of fuel. That gave me a fuel consumption figure of 7.8 litres per 100km.
If you’re ever wondering about the accuracy of your SID, mine was showing 7.8, so it seems to be pretty accurate.
That’s not exceptionally low according to some of the figures I’ve heard people mention here…….but I should explain a little about the route.
The road we drove today was fairly twisty and it took us into some of Tasmania’s hydro country. This is where there’s a bunch of highland lakes and reservoirs that feed into our hydro-electric power stations. We passed two of these hydro stations along the way and that involved some sustained hillclimbs.
The fact that we started near enough to sea level and ended up at an elevation of 774 meters should show that it was much more uphill than downhill, too.
I average around 12.5l/100km around our place, so 7.8 on a hilly, winding route isn’t too bad.
——
On the trip home from Derwent Bridge, I drove home normally and averaged somewhere between 100km/h and 110. I took exactly the same road in reverse and overtook cars where I needed to and it was safe to do so.
When I got home, the SID had moved from 7.8 to 8.0 for the entire trip. I probably should have zeroed it prior to the second leg, but the difference was negligible enough for me to be happy to drive the way I normally drive.
I might employ a few of the low-consumption tips, but I found that thinking about it so much took some of the joy out of driving for me.
——
We only had four cars turn out for this event. I’m not sure how the others went as I wanted to get home a bit earlier than the others. Hopefully I’ll find out soon and let you know.
Thanks again for all your help.

This weekend, I’ll be taking the Monte Carlo on an economy run with other members of the Saab Car Club here in Tasmania.
It’s the first club event that car’s been on, actually, so I’m really looking forward to it. I’m not sure if there are prizes involved, but I believe it is a competitive event – aiming to use as little fuel as possible ever the 150km or so of driving we’ll do.

I’ve had a read over WooDz’s guide to driving for mileage, and I’ve got myself used to the idea of cleaning out ALL the clutter, staying within the first 3rd of the turbo gauge and slowing well in advance of a light.
But if anyone else out there has some experience with this type of one-off event and has some tips for a first-timer, please feel free to drop your advice in comments.
At least we get a free lunch!