Are all sports cars relatively same MPG?

[Matthew III]

I know it's supposed to be smiles per gallon but it does bother me that the E9X M3s drink fuel like no other. I get about 17 mpg which is a mix of mostly highway, some city, and spirited drives. I see newer FI cars like Boxsters, Caymans, F8X, Mustang GT, etc. all touting better MPG but their forum members actually claim a wide variety between 15 and 25. I understand it depends on your foot but if I were to upgrade to a FI car like these, would I expect a drastically improved MPG or about the same? Anyone with experience? thanks

[Scharbag]

The S65 and S85 are quite possibly two of the least efficient, but most additive, engines ever produced by humans. I get ~19-20L/100KM (~11.5USMPG) fairly consistently. Usually 90% City and spirited rips with very little highway driving (no real highways in Victoria ). My buddy with an S85 is even worse... That said, my other buddy with a V10 Ford F350 long box crew-cab 4x4 uses slightly more fuel than I do (22L/100KM)...

The BEST mileage I ever got was on 7,000KM road trip. Driving 130KPH in Utah, I was able to get 11.5L/100KM (20USMPG).

My numbers are based on actual fill data, not the computer.

Do I care? Not one teeny, weeny, tiny little bit. At the end of the day, the S65 is worth every damn gigajoule of fuel!

I may be biased though...

[Cyberdemon]

FI really has less to do with it. Fuel consumption is a function of compression/displacement/revs/cylinders and gearing.

Having had a LS1 Corvette that made ~500whp on just the motor, I was still able to get close to 30mpg highway. At 80mph the car would be lugging around ~1500RPM. The E9X at the same speed is 3k+. So 8 cylinders turning twice as fast, it's not too much a surprise that the fuel economy is much less, closer to half.

This car drinks gas and the tank is small. The F80 will get better gas mileage, the low end torque means you don't need to rev as high and 2 fewer cylinders.

Check out fuelly.com - on average the F8x only sees about 3mpg higher average fuel economy. So yes it's better, but is it going to change your life like a hybrid? No not at all. If you do a lot of highway driving then you might see higher numbers.

Same goes for the Boxster/718, those cars are still showing low 20mpgs. It doesn't help people who drive sports cars typically drive them like sports cars. I tried being conservative on a trip and got ~22mpg but fuck was it boring.

[akkando]

Originally Posted by Matthew III

I know it's supposed to be smiles per gallon but it does bother me that the E9X M3s drink fuel like no other. I get about 17 mpg which is a mix of mostly highway, some city, and spirited drives. I see newer FI cars like Boxsters, Caymans, F8X, Mustang GT, etc. all touting better MPG but their forum members actually claim a wide variety between 15 and 25. I understand it depends on your foot but if I were to upgrade to a FI car like these, would I expect a drastically improved MPG or about the same? Anyone with experience? thanks

Well I drive my m2 and m3 the same way and I get almost 20mpg on the m2 and 15.5mpg on the m3 after new o2 sensors.

On my recent road trip in the m2 I got 23.5mpg with a loaded car with passenger driving like a normal person.

This is all on shitty California gas which gets worse mpg but apparently burns cleaner.

[Matthew III]

dam it...I really enjoy driving this car but the fuel is becoming an Achilles heel. thanks

[Vedubin01]

Originally Posted by Matthew III

dam it...I really enjoy driving this car but the fuel is becoming an Achilles heel. thanks

Need to move out of California... Paying $1.80 for 93 here in TX

[shimmy23]

Originally Posted by Matthew III

dam it...I really enjoy driving this car but the fuel is becoming an Achilles heel. thanks

I don’t care about mpg. I never have

[SYT_Shadow]

I get the same mileage driving my X5 35i than the M3... so I'm not part of the camp that thinks the E9X M3 consumes an exorbitant amount.

I do wish the tank were larger though...


Gearing is a large part of why the E9X consumes so much. Some sports cars, like Corvettes, have much better highway mpg but also have gearing with is completely nonsensical. In 6th gear the E9X M3 passes people on the highway with no issues and no downshifts.
I also have an F80 CS. I have to downshift to do the same operation I complete without a downshift on the E92

[Scharbag]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

I do wish the tank were larger though...

You are not kidding...

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

Gearing is a large part of why the E9X consumes so much. Some sports cars, like Corvettes, have much better highway mpg but also have gearing with is completely nonsensical. In 6th gear the E9X M3 passes people on the highway with no issues and no downshifts.
I also have an F80 CS. I have to downshift to do the same operation I complete without a downshift on the E92

I think all 6 speeds (and now 7 speeds) are stupid. Have you EVER needed to use 6th on a racetrack? I never have. Personally, I think that 1st through 5th should be like a proper race box and 6th should be a proper overdrive. Not this 0.872 bullshit.

As for 7 speed manuals - what in the absolute fresh hell is the point of that abomination???

Sorry for getting off topic.

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by Scharbag

As for 7 speed manuals - what in the absolute fresh hell is the point of that abomination???

Well, so far all the 7 speeds are worse than the 6 speeds they replaced. And make money-shifting more likely

On the other hand, you have dumbasses in the G8X section complaining that BMW kept a 6 speed for the G8X.

[Scharbag]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

Well, so far all the 7 speeds are worse than the 6 speeds they replaced. And make money-shifting more likely

On the other hand, you have dumbasses in the G8X section complaining that BMW kept a 6 speed for the G8X.

Perfect world for me would be a dog-leg 5 speed race box. I could give half a sh!t about top speed. Have 1st through 4th be an aggressive race box and 5th a nice OD for getting from A to B.

Dare to dream...

[kyrix1st]

You are complaining about mpg in a car with 8400 rpm, F1 derived screaming V8?

S65 is the pinnacle of BMW engines, perfect balance of motorsport and street driving. My E36 does get better mpg in general but actually requires more throttle to pull the car up to satisfactory speeds. Anything after F8x sounds shit.

In all seriousness, if you can use momentum driving i.e. get up to speed fast and use little throttle to keep that speed instead of lugging the engine in high gears all the time, it actually gets a very good mpg. I believe I got as high as 28 mpg on the highway and that was with 6MT.

[simons22]

I know it's supposed to be smiles per gallon but it does bother me that the E9X M3s drink fuel like no other. I get about 17 mpg which is a mix of mostly highway, some city, and spirited drives. I see newer FI cars like Boxsters, Caymans, F8X, Mustang GT, etc. all touting better MPG but their forum members actually claim a wide variety between 15 and 25.Like at the https://writemyessay4me.org/research-paper site I understand it depends on your foot but if I were to upgrade to a FI car like these, would I expect a drastically improved MPG or about the same? Anyone with experience? thanks

in my personal experience even when you change the car your habits stay the same
and if you used to put the pedal to the metal your Mpg would satay the same level

[FrozenE92M3]

Originally Posted by Vedubin01

Need to move out of California... Paying $1.80 for 93 here in TX

Fuel cost is the least of the problems in California. This blue shit smear of a state has the worst politicians, the worst taxes, the biggest housing crisis, the biggest homeless crisis etc etc. The only redeeming characteristic of this shithole is the beautiful scenery and driving roads.

[Matthew III]

Thanks all. It's more of range anxiety than the money; Low fuel indicator lights up at 1/4 tank which means I have about 200 miles between fill ups if my mpg is 17. Having to pit stop every 200 miles is not ideal...but I suspect that most high end cars have around this range when doing spirited runs. Am I wrong?

[Cyberdemon]

Originally Posted by Matthew III

Thanks all. It's more of range anxiety than the money; Low fuel indicator lights up at 1/4 tank which means I have about 200 miles between fill ups if my mpg is 17. Having to pit stop every 200 miles is not ideal...but I suspect that most high end cars have around this range when doing spirited runs. Am I wrong?

Coding the low fuel light to come on less aggressively is helpful. Some of the terror is artificial.

This car is not ideal if you want a long-distance highway cruiser. A Porsche Cayman has basically the same fuel capacity. A Corvette has a bigger tank (~18+gallons) so you get more range when you have lower cruising RPM and better overall MPG. Thats when a car like the M5 starts to shine with an extra gear or two and a 20 gallon tank.

I filled up my F30 335i just before Hurricane Sandy hit NY. There was a major fuel shortage for weeks and premium was almost completely unavailable. I drove it as grandmotherly as possible and even though the car had a ~15G tank I was able to get ~450 miles range and still make it to the gas station weeks later.

[pbonsalb]

Over the past 10 years and 80k miles, my mpg has been in the 17.5 to 19.5 range for most tanks. I live in NH so there is around town driving, but heavy traffic city driving is rare, and there is a lot of secondary road and highway driving. On a pure highway trip, mpg is in the low 20s but I don’t drive slowly so it probably could be better.

I don’t drive enough miles for mpg to matter. If I was driving 50k per year, maybe I would think differently and consider more economical cars. A tuned turbodiesel could be fun and just as fast as the M3.

We have a newer car that has more horsepower and weighs more that seems to be getting better mpg. But it has 3 overdrive gears and is often in one of them. It’s strange to drive around at 1400 rpm.

[Siajoon]

I'm saying this with complete honesty, every single time I think to complain about my mpg I ring her out to 8400 and I think to myself what's mpg?????????? And then I end up at a gas station again.

Oh well