With the price of Gow Hah (95 octane fuel)
now into the 18 baht per litre bracket, and heading inexorably
towards 20 baht, what can you do to lower your fuel bill?
Lots, actually, but is it worth it?
To start with, check that your car really
does need 95 octane. The owner’s manual will tell you. You
can probably use 91, which is cheaper. Or even a 50/50 mix of
95 and 91. Using higher octane fuel than the engine actually
needs does not give you more fuel economy. It is just more
expense.
Lamborghini
L-147 Murcielago
Gasohol? Right now I’d give it careful
consideration only. I would wait and see what happens with
other vehicles, similar to your own, letting them be the
mobile guinea pigs. Or perhaps bunny rabbits.
Another certain way of improving the
vehicle’s fuel consumption is to make sure the engine is in
tune. How long is it since you had a service that included
plugs, points, ignition timing, valve clearances and the like?
To get the best fuel economy, the engine must be in its best
state of tune. Inefficiency makes for fuel wastage. The
engineers say you can save up to 30 percent here. But that is
in extreme situations only. Like one plug that doesn’t fire!
Honda
Insight
Another factor that influences the fuel
economy is the rolling resistance of your tyres. Running
under-inflated uses fuel. Bringing your tyre pressures up to a
few psi above recommended levels will help. There’s another
5 percent here.
Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid
acceleration and braking) wastes fuel. It can increase fuel
use by 33 percent at highway speeds and by 5 percent around
town. Cruising at more than 100 kph also lowers fuel economy
by as much as 20 percent. Steady cruising is the answer of
course. Better for fuel economy, and the comfort of the
passengers.
Of course, the vehicle you drive also
affects the fuel consumption, and I found the following
examples given by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
First off, the top three gas guzzlers!
Lamborghini L-147 Murcielago
Aston Martin V12 Vanquish
Bentley Continental GT
Since all of these vehicles will cost more
than 20 million baht in this country, I think any estimate of
their fuel economy is a total waste of my time and yours! When
you’ve splashed out the equivalent of 10 three bedroom
houses and bought your Lambo Murcielago, do you care about its
fuel consumption? I doubt it. I certainly wouldn’t!
The US EPA does also publish a list of fuel
efficient vehicles, and not surprisingly, the hybrid vehicles
are on the top of the list. The pundits suggest that we should
choose from the good fuel economy vehicles and think of the
money we save. However, it’s not that simple from the
overall point of view.
Take for example, their number 1 fuel
miser, the Honda Insight. This little gem costs 3.7 million
baht. Compare this with the Honda Jazz that costs about 0.6
million baht, a saving of 3.1 million. I will now consult my
crystal ball and suggest that in five years, the Insight will
be worth 1 million baht, and the Jazz 0.2 million. You will
have lost 2.7 million baht on the Insight and 0.4 million baht
with the Jazz. So the Insight owner will have ‘lost’ 2.3
million baht more than the Jazz owner in the five years
(ignoring servicing, insurance and other standard expenses).
That breaks down to 460,000 baht a year.
So will the Insight owner save more than
460,000 baht per year in fuel costs? This is not possible. Not
even the Lambo Murcielago owner will spend 38,000 baht a month
on fuel.
I have always said that fuel is the
cheapest part of motoring. Depreciation is the most expensive.
Think about it.
For interest only, here is the EPA ‘good
guys’ list, but I have only published vehicles that can be
purchased here:
Honda Insight (Hybrid)
Honda Civic (Hybrid)
Toyota Prius (Hybrid)
Mini Cooper
Toyota Rav4 2WD
Ford Ranger Pickup 2WD
Mazda B2300 2WD
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Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I mentioned that Mazda has always
been very successful at putting its rotary engines into two
seater sports cars or four seater small sedans; however, it
was not successful with the rotary in a larger 5/6 seater
sedan. I asked what was the name of this vehicle? It was a
Holden Kingswood body from Australia, fitted with the rotary
(a 12A I think from memory) and called a Mazda Roadpacer, but
it was not popular.
 Mazda
Roadpacer
So to this week. What was the first 500cc
car to win a hill climb outright? It was August 1946 at the
Prescott hill climb. Clue - it wasn’t John Cooper!
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be
the first correct answer to email [email protected]
Good luck!
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What did we learn
from the German GP?
Well we got some real racing - at last!
Despite another win by Michael Schumacher, his 11th this
season, this was probably the best GP of the year. Why?
Because we actually saw some motor racing action! Finally!
Button, Alonso, Webber and Sato all
gave us plenty of action with good passing and re-passing
manoeuvres. What we have been waiting for - passing on the
track, and not in the pits. Motor racing is about going
fast on a circuit and beating other cars. It is not about
using ‘strategy’ to bring your man in to get him out
on a vacant track. We can all go fast on our own, it’s
the ability to race and beat other drivers for possession
of the same piece of bitumen that sorts the men from the
boys.
I must admit the following fact was
pointed out to me by my old mate Alan Coates, but what
happened to the much touted “dirty air” that is
supposed to stop the cars getting too close together and
therefore putting an end to passing? Did the German
authorities ‘clean’ it all before the race? The
efforts of the above named drivers put the lie to all that
chit-chat.
And talking about chit-chat, I continue
to appeal to Star Sports to get rid of the inane bletherer
Steve Slater, and while they’re showing him the door,
the woman that introduces and closes the show can share
his taxi. Can they find nobody who knows the sport and
doesn’t just babble to fill up the airwaves? The Slater
person finishes every race talking up the chances of the
guy running second. This week, shrieking that Button had
just pulled 0.5 seconds out of Michael Schumacher’s lead
and could make it to the top step of the podium. This was
eight laps from the end and Schumacher was 10 seconds in
front. A Grade 3 schoolboy could work out that at that
rate it would take Button 20 laps to catch him, but there
were only eight. Button drove well, but he wasn’t going
to catch Schumacher.
So what other things did we learn,
other than the fact that Button can’t do up his helmet
properly! We learned that BMW Williams have a test driver
in Antonio Pizzonia, not a race driver, with him finishing
behind Mark Webber’s Jaguar. Webber will be going to
Williams next year is the popular rumour; however, it
could be Renault, as Jarno Trulli has announced he is
leaving Flavio Briatore’s team. Since Flavio owns
Webber’s contract, you might just see the Aussie in the
Anglo-French cars.
While still on Williams, Montoya is not
having a golden year. He stuffed the start and never
looked as if he was in the hunt after that. We know he is
going to McLaren Mercedes for 2005. Perhaps his mind is
elsewhere?
Another driver whose mind was
elsewhere, in fact I think he left it in the motorhome,
was Ferrari’s “equal number 1” (quote from R.
Barichello). Rooby Baby’s move on Coulthard on the first
lap had no hope of coming off. The only thing that did
come off was his front wing. He rejoined, but never even
looked to be in contention.
Another driver who was strangely
detuned all weekend was Sato. Slower than Button by far,
and despite some feisty driving in the race, failed to
capitalize on the car’s performance the way Button did.
Young Kimi Raikkonen showed he is still
a very young man, with yet another display of spitting the
dummy after his McLaren spat its rear wing element, while
David Coulthard demonstrated why he won’t be at McLaren
next year!
The next race is the Hungarian GP on
August 15. Let’s hope it will be as entertaining as this
one was.
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Honda and BAR to continue
till end of 2007
One important factor for any race team to
continue to improve is stability. That is stability in
management, funding (and dare I say it - the driver line-up)
and engineering, including supply of engines.
 That
Ferrari has done so well in the last few years relates in
many, many ways to that stability. Now look at Toyota which
has changed everything, including its drivers and toilet
cleaners practically every year. And look where Toyota are on
the manufacturers championship! And look at Jaguar, who has
had more management and driver changes than anyone else, with
mutterings now that Klien is on the way out. I agree that he
is not scoring points for the team and hits things more often
than his experienced team mate (who does score points), but
what did they expect by taking on a rookie ‘pay driver’?
Rather than sacking him, they should bite the bullet and have
him driving and testing as many days as they can.
One team that has risen to the top is BAR.
With Dave Richards, a true proven manager now at the helm, and
a little stability in the driver line-up, now that the
over-rated (in my opinion) and highly overpaid Canadian prima
donna has gone, BAR have been on the podium almost every race.
In Germany at the GP, it was announced that
Honda will continue to supply engines to BAR till the end of
the 2007 season. “This season we are realizing concrete
progress in this new challenge and are aiming to reach our
initial goal of getting our first victory,” said Takanobu
Ito, managing director of Honda Motor Company.
“In order to consistently win races in
the future, we have made a new multi-year contract with BAR in
which we will supply engines and conduct joint development of
chassis technology,” he said.
“The flourishing partnership between BAR
and Honda is now starting to show in our on track performance
and Honda’s commitment to our future will ensure both long
term stability and the continued competitiveness of the
team,” added BAR team principal Dave Richards.
The second place at Hockenheim bears
witness to that last remark!
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