How Fast in 3rd, 4th?

Almost everyone that asks me about my '94 Miata, one of the first questions I get is how many miles per gallon do I get. Sad to say, they are missing the point. I usually answer with something like "it gets ok". I shift where needed for the conditions. It is amazing how quickly you can move when you work the engine and gearbox as intended. And the sounds are part of the fun. I used to pass a guy on the way to work in a car identical to mine. I would say he never revved it up at all. I used to pass him on a state highway in third gear, usually just to go by him with the engine revving. I can pass slower cars at will with some room and dropping back to third. He used to blink his lights at me over and over when I went by him. I always felt it irritated him that I was willing to wring mine out a little. Any way, it was fun when I would see him and could pass him. Maybe a little mean, but all in fun. Thats what this car is about anyway, fun. The last time I saw him he was in a celica.

Actually, it's "straining" a bit below 4000. Between 4000 and 7000 is where it was designed to work best.

I don't spin the engine needlessly, but I use what I have when I feel the need. It's demand-driven, not dogmatic. I refrain from using more than 4000 rpm or half throttle before the oil reaches full operating temperature.

If I'm just pooping along in traffic on flat roads, I'll generally shift at about 15, 25, 35, and 50 mph (I don't watch the tach much then). Whatever feels appropriate. I get about 30 mpg in such conditions.

Out of traffic where I can accelerate normally (3/4 throttle), I may shift at 5000 rpm until I reach the speed limit, then into 5th if it's over 50. 28 mpg here.

When I'm playing hard in the boonies, it's >6500 on every shift, and occasionally hitting the rev limiter. 3rd is good to 75 mph, 4th to 110.

On road trips, mpg depends on prevailing winds, but is generally 32-34. We got 36 in the mountains last August. My best-ever mpg was 37.4, pretty good for a 1.8, but I was trying.

BTW, at 123k miles the engine runs better than new and uses no oil.

Not neccessarily. You would if you revved it right out to the limiter on a wide-open-throttle every time, but letting the engine spin out to high revs on a lighter throttle isn't going to hurt the fuel consumption much. It's a twin-cam 16V motor which flows gasses better at higher revs so it needs to be revved to let it develop usable power. Besides, as others have said, if fuel consumption mattered so much you shouldn't be driving a 2-seater sportscar :-) I commute to work on a very high performance bike that will rev to 14000rpm. I routinely rev it to 12000rpm in the lower gears on open roads but feeding the throttle in to build the revs up and this gives me the same fuel consumption as when I was keeping it below 5000rpm to break it in, and leaves all the cars for dead. Sounds much nicer when it revs hard too.

Maybe I should have added a smiley to my post ;-)

SteevM

The Lupo is not available in the US. Plus it's diesel, so nowhere as clean as a 2004 Prius (AT-PZEV). But the mileage on the Lupo is impressive, even for such a small car.

IIRC the Prius is a gasoline/electric hybrid, right?

The Lupo is the smallest VW (and I believe about to be discontinued). It is a Diesel and it was the first 100 km/3 liter car in ordinary production.

Later came the Audi A2 3L which had the same fuel consumption specs, but a bit more room.

The Lupo is tiny compared to US cars. The Polo is smaller than the Golf, and the Lupo is even smaller.

Anyway: The Prius gets 55 MPG which gives us this little table:

MPG km/l liters/100km Prius 55,00 23,38 4,28 Lupo 78,40 33,33 3,00

... provided I can still do math.

Bear in mind that the measurement standards might be different.

Must be something wrong with my car because the best I've ever gotten was

Now I get something like 23-24 and I shift at 3000 rpm.

Something doesnt seem right

-Sohel

Larry, I guess that I need to reject what my senses are telling me from the sound the engine makes. While on basics, I also depress the clutch all the way to the floor when shifing between 1st and 2nd, and sometimes, from 2n'd to 3rd.

while i seldom go past 6k any more, i'm definitely still in 3rd gear when i become illegal on the acceleration ramp. as a consequence i don't spend much time in 4th gear on the freeway. fortunately i live in pasadena & enough cars on the 210 average over 80mph so i flow rather nicely with traffic & the car hums pleasantly enough at 4k rpm in fifth at that point.

bc

Maybe so. A roadster with no sound insulation under the hood presents normal noises that you simply don't hear in a sedan. They aren't bad noises, just unfamiliar ones. It's part of roadsterdom.

Ok, ok, I'll start being more aggressive. I once owned a '71 240Z and drove it more aggressively that the Miata. Unfortunately, rust did in the Z. I just want to keep this car for a log time and have baby'd it.

There's a lesson there!

Drive your car too hard and it will rust out from under you!

I feel your pain--it broke my heart when my own '71 Z rusted through...the second time. But I drive the Miata WAY harder than I did the Z, and it's holding up much better. The Z was burning oil when I sold it at 80k, and had gone through about a million U-joints. It wasn't quite stock, though--it would pull redline (140 mph) in 4th. The Miata is a much better sports car, and far better built.

Some owners have over 200k miles, and hit the rev limiter every day. To "baby" a Miata, 1) change the oil every 3k, 2) don't let it overheat, and 3) be careful not to "upshift" into a lower gear by mistake. Hard driving won't hurt anything.

The Z was a hell of a car and I miss it but it was a goner the day Nissan Motors poured the contaminated steel that became its body. This was common in Japan during the '70s for many cars they made.

Pat wrote:

Not necessarily contaminated steel, there are lots of ways to build a car which rusts fast.

Mini Mokes were built in Australia between about 1969 and 1981.

There are three types of Mokes: Rust free Mokes were built from about mid 1979 onwards and were galvanised. Rusty Mokes were built from 1969 to 1976 and in 1978. Unbelievably rusty Mokes with big eruptions of rust in the middle of panels where there is nothing obvious to cause rust were built in 1977.

When you see a visibly rusty Moke with rust eruptions in the middle of flat panels, it almost always turns out to be a 1977.

I have a friend who worked for British Leyland in Australia in the

In the Z's case, poor design allowed water to collect in a seam above the top of the rear wheel arch, nearly always the first place to rust through for those of us in the Road Salt Belt. Fiberglass replacement fenders hit the market a couple of months after I sold my Z.

X-No-Archive: Yes

Pat wrote:

You should be in 5th if you're steadily cruising over ~45mph

Cruising along in a gear lower than necessary gains you nothing while it lowers your fuel economy and increase engine noise.

Geeez, 45 sounds too low. I've been shifting at over 55.

(Of course, there are limits--if you're doing 70 mph in 3rd and still not satisfied...tough.)

That is where the more sophisticated Miata owner puts in forced induction. It makes all the difference passing on two-lane highways.

Leon