Quote:
Originally Posted by T Bone
As far as the best way to drive for maximum fuel economy..... The theory is that you consume less fuel by accelerating briskly (but not WOT) to your cruising speed rather than accelerating slowly to get to your crusing speed.
I did a search last night on some of the crazy people who are mpg freaks and found this:
http://www.crxmpg.com/accelmpg.html
Accelerating briskly will yield a ~3% improvement in fuel economy versus accelerating slowly.
As for the shift times, they matter for pure acceleration but for fuel economy, I don't think they matter at all (or at least it is noise).
If MDCT puts in a "Hairy Hippie Legs" mode and it shifts 1-3-5 then sure, this will be more efficient than 6MT. Short of a special alogrithm for fuel economy for MDCT, there should be no difference between MDCT and 6MT (save the gear ratios). |
It is only a hypothesis but I still believe the shift is important. It is not easy to figure out if the brisk acceleration/gear skip thing saves from more operating time at higher efficiency or from the losses during the deceleration and shifting as I described previously. At this point we each have our theories but mine is stonger because I acknowledges both effects, you insist that the shift time can not be significant without any evidence other than opinion/speculation. Much DCT/DSG marketing information does support the gains purely from shift time effects as well.