My idea about quantifying FE mods

[SVOboy]

Firstly, take a look at <A href=http://www.gassavers.org/forum_topic/mpg_vs_speed_metro.html target=_blank>this.</a>

Okay, well, we all know about dyno charts. And one of the things about this stuff that's neat whereas being like, I gained 10 hp ain't neat it where you can say, I gained 10hp from 3k-5k, which is like midrange heaven.

Anyway, I think it might be neat if when we do a mod we could track it by graphing the effectiveness at different speeds. I mean, this would be rediculously helpful to a lot of people I think.

Say I drive all town and I'm looking through the experiments section and I see a 10% improvement from something aero. I'll be all, that's cool, let's do it. But if Metro posts that graph and a new model and I see that my average speed only gets 1% improvement, it might not be so attractive. However, if I'm always highway I might see 15% and rush out to do it because that's crazy!

Just a thought.

[MetroMPG]

i would love to quantify each mod with the same graph.

the trouble is mainly time & weather.

that graph took an honest 2 hours to "research" and write up (my test course is 15 km from the house). if i won the lottery, i would happily spend all day doing stuff like that. (well... the days i'm not rolling in my money pile, that is)

and we'd need some way to quantify the effect of ambient conditions. it was below 60F when i made the graph. we know if i repeated the runs at 80F i would have seen different (better) numbers.

[SVOboy]

I'm worthless.

[MetroMPG]

nah, it's still a great idea. and you can be sure i'll likely continue to spend more time than is healthy making graphs like that.

on the other hand, since i have that detailed baseline, for future mods i could probably just sample 3 or 4 different speeds to plot against it and extrapolate the new slope...

i should be working right now.

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

i would love to quantify each mod with the same graph.

the trouble is mainly time & weather.

that graph took an honest 2 hours to "research" and write up (my test course is 15 km from the house). if i won the lottery, i would happily spend all day doing stuff like that. (well... the days i'm not rolling in my money pile, that is)

and we'd need some way to quantify the effect of ambient conditions. it was below 60F when i made the graph. we know if i repeated the runs at 80F i would have seen different (better) numbers.

I was actually thinking of making a graph applet so that people can enter any number of variables and then it will cache and spit out a graphic for you. People could then have their own custom FE graphs and post them at will.

Yeah, add this to the long list of things to do.

[95metro]

You wouldn't believe how much time I've spent on the Excel sheet I use for graphing my fuel economy. I started recording temperature, pressure, and humidity recently as well. Plus I just bought a vacuum gauge so you know that info's going in there as soon as it's hooked up (this weekend).