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Mike Kamm
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AMEC Economy Run IV Recap, Part 1
It was a great day today for A.M.E.C.'s 4th Economy Run event in two years. No rain in sight and temps in the 50's. For upstate NY in November, these are very good conditions. There was a light wind that both helped and hurt depending on which direction we were travelling [and we travelled in all directions].
I'd like to thank all who came out and participated. It was most enjoyable, and as always, great to see everyone again.
Last minute preparations prior to the start of the competition. That's Steve McKelvie's supercharged, automatic Mercedes Benz SLK on the left.
Robert's 2000 Insight has only been on the road for three days. He picked it up as a salvage recovery car and waited a long time to get a title from New York State DMV.
Under the hood of Robert's Insight.
Martin is seen here readying his record setting diesel Jetta TDI. Will Meredith's Honda Civic was sporting some additional areo treatments on the nose today.
Chang Ho Kim's now infamous Civic HF was driven all the way from eastern Massachusettes sporting his full plexiglass aero package. Cool!
Chang's newly fabricated Kammback for this event.
It's always great to see new people at each event, and it was really cool to see an entire family on board, including two black Labs! This is Mr. and Mrs. Dan Wren in their 1986 BMW 325ES.
The only Historic Class entry at this event, Bruce Turk's rare 1958 Saab 93B.
This was our very first 2-stroke powered vehicle in competition. Check out that areodynamic silhouette! Nice.
Richard Vedder's 2000 Escort ZX2 S/R, next to my 1993 Sentra SE-R. We both use these cars for ice racing and other speed type events. Both are 2 liter 5 speed cars with 140 h.p.
From 2 cycle classics, to race cars, and modern hybrids, they are all fun to hypermile with.
At the halfway checkpoint, our friend Jonathan Bartlett [Lug_Nut] and his 1995 VW Cabrio with TDI swap. Thanks for volunteering your time Jonathan!
Just got called for dinner, I'll continue with more later. And yes, I'll have results up too. 
Last edited by Mike Kamm, 11/1/2009, 9:31 pm
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11/1/2009, 6:20 pm
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Mike Kamm
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Re: AMEC Economy Run IV - November 1st, 2009 + Go-Karts
OK, now for the results by class. The length of today's course was verified by two GPS units at 107.5 miles. These results were calculated from that distance.
Gas Class
1. Chang Ho Kim - 1989 Honda CRX - 95.98 mpg
2. Will Meredith 1998 - Honda Civic EX - 61.43 mpg
3. Mike Kamm - 1993 Nissan Sentra SE-R - 60.73 mpg
4. Richard Vedder - 2000 Ford ZX2 S/R - 51.20 mpg
5. Jeffrey Dungen - 1992 Toyota Levin GT-Apex - 50.95 mpg
6. Robert Kerly - 1998 Mercury Tracer - 41.51 mpg
7. Ernie Yue - 2001 Ford Focus - 40.88 mpg
8. Dan Wren - 1986 BMW 325ES - 40.41
9. Steve McKelvie - 2003 Mercedes-Benz SLK230 - 39.96 mpg
10. Tom Compoli - 1981 VW Rabbit - 34.90 mpg
Diesels and Hybrids
1. Robert Smalls - 2000 Honda Insight - 86.73 mpg [See note below]
2. Martin Deschenes - 2000 VW Jetta TDI - 74.65 mpg
3. Hobbit - 2004 Toyota Prius - 63.90
Historic Class
1. Bruce Turk - 1958 Saab 93B - 36.32 mpg [See note below]
Notes:
This was Bruce Turk's first economy run event ever. He basically cruised the entire course at between 40-45 mph with his little 2-stroke pwered Saab. Original fuel economy numbers for the day on that car were 29-31 mpg. Bruce was happy with his 36.32 mpg. However, with his tank topped fully from this event, he drove the 114 miles back to his home at a [GPS calculated] average speed of 59.8 mph. He filled up again and checked his mileage. He was very surprised at what he found. He achieved 45.6 mpg! To me it makes sense, as we all know that all 2 cycle engines definitely have a sweet spot. Unfortunately for Bruce, he didn't learn what it was until after the event!
As we have learned from holding these events, there are times when the usual top up refill calculation process can sometimes be unreliable and/or inaccurate. Ben Jones' CRX had this problem in Economy Run III. In that case we revert back to what the in car mpg display unit says, and then subtract 2% [the usual error with facory units]. With that said, Robert Smalls' Insight had an unreasonably low mpg outcome at 63.61 mpg. His factory in car unit showed 88.5 mpg. This is a large discrepancy, so we discussed during the awards and all agreed we should revert back to his display figure, minus 2%.
Last edited by Mike Kamm, 11/2/2009, 8:02 am
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11/1/2009, 7:41 pm
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Mike Kamm
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AMEC Economy Run IV recap continued.....
This is Chan Tchen and Jeffrey Dungen in Jeff's 1992 Toyota Levin GT-Apex. Jeff's on the right, because this is a right hand drive car. This is the JDM spec "Corolla" I spoke about earlier in this thread.
The Levin's 1.6 liter engine has 5 valves per cylinder, individual throttle bodies, and is rated at 158 h.p. We were all very impressed to see it return 50.95 mpg! You've got to love Toyotas.
It was great to see another ice racer come out for these events and Ernie Yue did not disappoint. He brought out his automatic 2001 Ford Focus SL racer and achieved 40.88 mpg with it!
"Top Cat" Tom Compoli worked real hard to get his VW Rabbit winter ice racer repaired for this event. His carbureted Rabbit returned 34.90 mpg. Richard Vedder's 2.0 liter ZX2 S/R netted a nice 51.20 mpg.
My 1993 Nissan Sentra SE-R. I finished the body repairs a day early and was then couldn't resist making some changes to it for this event after all. I installed a donated set of Eibach 2" drop springs [thanks Phil LePore!], partial lower grill block, taped the wheels, and hypermiled it for all it was worth. This was the first time I've ever tried an event like this with this car and I was really delighted with it's 60.73 mpg debut today.
And last but certainly not least, we owe a big thank you to our event co-organizer, Mark Long. Mark is the brains behind the operation. He writes the Excel spreadsheets and keeps track of all raw data. He brings his 110V power inverter and powers up his color printer and other things with it. Quite a nice operation. Thanks Mark! 
Last edited by Mike Kamm, 6/14/2010, 1:53 pm
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11/1/2009, 8:34 pm
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Dave 48
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Re: AMEC Economy Run IV - November 1st, 2009 + Go-Karts
Great write up Mike wish I could have been there.
Did the participants like the course?
Did they think it was better or worse for getting good MPG's?
Was there a lot of traffic to contend with?
Looks like some of the mileage numbers were lower but some did better.
Thanks,
Dave B
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11/1/2009, 9:11 pm
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Mike Kamm
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Re: AMEC Economy Run IV - November 1st, 2009 + Go-Karts
quote:
Dave 48 wrote:
Great write up Mike wish I could have been there.
Did the participants like the course?
Did they think it was better or worse for getting good MPG's?
Was there a lot of traffic to contend with?
Looks like some of the mileage numbers were lower but some did better.
Thanks,
Dave B
I think everyone liked the course, because traffic was extremely sparse and we had free reign to do our thing without holding anyone up.
There was some discussion afterwards that the much flatter course may actually have hurt mpg numbers. That's the opposite of what we thought would happen. It's hard to say how much the 30+ degrees cooler temps may have effected the results.
Let's face it, everyone loves new records and big numbers, but we can't have them every time out. Filling and refilling was very tightly controlled. I was very satisfied with how that all went. I did not have any trouble with getting anyone's car to fill to the rim and hold steady. Every car was refilled at the same pump at the start and finish. I filled all cars on the slowest possible speed to avoid bubbles.
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11/1/2009, 9:29 pm
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Chang Ho
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Re: AMEC Economy Run IV - November 1st, 2009 + Go-Karts
Thank you AMEC. Mike, Mark you guys put on a great event and lots of fun. The gokarts were a hoot too. Maybe its the upstate NY thing, but there always seems to be a nice friendly feeling in the air.
Oh and I forgot who pointed out the fluid under my car, thanks. It turned out to be coolant. Car overheated on the way home, filled it with spring water I had in my cooler and got home ok.
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11/1/2009, 10:54 pm
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Mike Kamm
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Re: AMEC Economy Run IV - November 1st, 2009 + Go-Karts
Thanks for coming out once again and giving our event a boost in visual appeal Chang. Your creative efforts are second to none. I always wondered how your radiator got enough airflow to function properly. I love it when people push the envelope like you do. Glad you made it home OK.
And congratulations on your overall victory with top mpg of the event. Nicely done sir!
Here are two pics taken by Will Meredith.
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11/2/2009, 9:04 am
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Mike Kamm
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Additional pictures by Will Meredith.....thanks Will!
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11/2/2009, 9:10 am
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Mike Kamm
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Re: AMEC Economy Run IV - November 1st, 2009 + Go-Karts
Some of the ecomodder guys are really hard core. A few of them slept in their cars in front if a Hannford shopping center on Saturday night. When Martin Dechenes woke up on Sunday morning he had a flash. He went into the supermarket and bought some Glad Press'n Seal.
The following pictures and text are from the Ecomodder forum and are in Martin's words.
It's got thousands of uses, it's written on the box! I'm pretty sure they never imagined it being used on a car though.
It was actually pretty sticky all by itself, but we added some tape just to be sure. I'll eventually test it without tape to see how it holds up.
Side view of Chang's Kammback.
Even the mirror got its boattail!
Bruce's beautiful Saab 93B. It's also interesting to know that [although it is invisible from the outside] Bruce's car came from the factory with an adjustable grill block! Yes, in inclement weather you can close off the grill to keep water off of the distributor on a 93B.
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11/2/2009, 10:25 am
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Mike Kamm
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Re: AMEC Economy Run IV - November 1st, 2009 + Go-Karts
Here were some of Martin's comments on his diesel's performance in yesterday's event:
I was a bit disappointed by my results [74.65 mpg], especially since I did a bit more to the car and I drove slower than the previous event. On the other hand, my coolant temp was only 100 F when I started the run and it took almost 10 miles to get it up to 180 F. Also, I'm wondering if the station had switched over to winterized diesel fuel. There can be up to a 15% difference in BTU content between summer straight D2 and the winter blend to prevent gelling.
Anyway, it was a lot of fun seeing everyone again and I'm glad I participated in this event. I'm looking forward to the Watkin's Glen Green Grand Prix economy event next spring.
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11/2/2009, 10:34 am
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