SoCalTerminators gone

[SVTRonDogg]

Accufab made the cruise control whacky for sure.

Did they ever redesign those things to run a little smoother?

[Tetge]

Accufab made the cruise control whacky for sure.

Did they ever redesign those things to run a little smoother?

I don't think that they ever did, and a modded engine with 4.10's made it even worse. But, I adapted when using the cruise control and learned to use the throttle, when indicated, to avoid the thunk. I also adjusted the Acufab even though Acufab said never to do so. But, they were not correct and it helped to dial it in.

[03_SONIC_BLUR]

Cruise control. Automatics in underpowered and overgeared vehicles will downshift erratically under load. I lock the cruise control in the Cobra on the way to vegas and it maintains a pretty steady 2300 RPM. This results in about 25 MPG

I was going to post about fuel consumption per hour and stuff and such, but decided I was probably the only egghead who cares about that crap

[Brakelate]

I was going to post about fuel consumption per hour and stuff and such, but decided I was probably the only egghead who cares about that crap

No, please do. I always enjoy hearing your thoughts on things. Not sure if you saw my mini-rant somewhere in the "ScanGauge II" thread, but when I ran the same commute loop over and over, I would dwell on such a topic. I spent days, if not weeks, tinkering with the onboard "Fuel Consumption" parameters trying to get them to match my real world "hand extracted' data. I finally got it, then for some reason, it went away. I could never get it back, and gave up trying. The "Current MPG" was fine, but it swept so wildly under those conditions that I needed to dumb it down a bit to at least Average per Trip, if not Average per Tank to smooth it all out.

Anywhoo... best I was doing was right at a tick under 20 mpg on my Angeles Crest / 210 / 14 total loop. I don't think I ever saw 25, even constant cruise. But, I never could stay out of it for one full tank. Just one brief pull under boost through a single gear, and it would totally throw off the data for that one tank. That is the crazy thing about these cars. They can do OK on fuel, but to make such power, it takes fuel. And one little dip into that well of HP and your averages are all shot.

[03_SONIC_BLUR]

I'll do some math for the sake of a comparo when I get some time. On the way to vegas, on the 15, I generally lock the cruise at 78 and steer around people. It uses just slightly more fuel running 78 that it does at 65, so under the guise of GPH I can go to Vegas on just slightly more gas (Maybe half a gallon) than if drove slower, but shave a ton of time off the trip. Generally, time saved is about 30 to 40 minutes

[Tetge]

The fuel mileage calculator on the 5.0 slug is very accurate. Today I reset it and got just over 22 mpg to Costco and back. It was funny, initially, since the reset mileage has to climb up as you travel, but, it actually was going down at stop lights as the car sat and made no progress. Of course, to get 22 mpg, I drove fairly easy and I used the cruise control a lot at just over the posted limit. On short hops, in cold weather, the car has been getting terrible mileage. I am wondering if it stays in the cold start up mode, or something? But, it is not broken as it runs fine and it is still capable of pretty decent mileage on the open highway. I might be able to match SonicB's 25 mpg to Vegas, if I followed him, but, of course, he does have only that little 4.6 under the hood while I have to feed a giant 5.0.

[xbacksideslider]

My 30 year old turbo dodge does better than that and it'll do 12s on all season/snow radials.

[Brakelate]

Oooo! Feel the Burn!

[Tetge]

My 30 year old turbo dodge does better than that and it'll do 12s on all season/snow radials.

It sounds as if I should be scared by yet another obsolete and outdated antique machine. But, of course, you don't actually run this alleged 12 second machine at the drags, so, I guess I will not have to be concerned about being beaten down by it. And, that is good, since being pounded by that ancient Norton with the bicycle tires is bad enough.

[Brakelate]

Gawd Dayum. I remember how HARD I worked to get that '01 Cobra into the 12's at LACR back when I was first introduced to this band of nut buckets.

I almost went insane that day at Inyo-Kern, in good air, hot lapping around, trying every trick in the book, and it would repeatedly miss the mark by only a few hundreths of a second . Turns out, it was an epic event regardless... I think the last event run at that facility. Then, there was the mad max drive there and back... blowing off supercharged C4 Corvette's and then all of us being flat out smoked across the desert floor at sunrise by a insane Ford Escort station wagon with three hub caps and god knows what under the hood, driven by one VERY motivated crack head. Awesome.

That car. It sounded so right, felt so strong, and yet it took run after run to get there. At a dyno tuned 308 RWHP, 4:30's and finally some throw away ET Street Bias Ply drag tires combined with a perfect launch and slick shifting to reach it's all time best of 12.5 down around 109 mph.

Now it seems like every little farty car can do it. Not implying that Norton John's Dodge is a bucket of bolts, but more so, that any modern "econobox" puts out like 320 Hp and can shred right along while getting 30+ mpg on skinny pizza cutter tires.