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Its really only in the US people accelerate extra stupid slow, I don't know why that is but in every other country I have been too people drive in more of a sporty kind of way and enjoy it.
Can you tell me WHY I should floor it once the light changes? I'm going across the street. I don't find any particular enjoyment in that.
So tired of missing the light and waiting for the next cycle cause so many people still believe slow acceleration saves fuel.
Engine efficiency peaks in most applications at around 75% of rated engine power, which is also the range of greatest engine torque (e.g. in most modern passenger automobile engines with a redline of about 6,000 RPM, maximum torque is obtained at about 4,500 RPM, and maximum engine power is obtained at about 6,000 RPM). At all other combinations of engine speed and torque, the thermal efficiency is less than this maximum. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_efficiency
Maybe back in the days of carburetors on automobile you wasted fuel by opening the main jets but we have this new thing called fuel injection. Been around for some time now.
Will the myth that slowly accelerating saves fuel ever die ?
By this rationale sitting neutral in your drive way while running the engine at 4500 rpm would be an extremely efficient use of fuel.
Likewise overdrive transmissions that drop your rpms down to 2000 rpm have gotten all wrong this whole time. Why on earth would the transmission upshift just when you finally reached maximum thermal efficiency?
Life is short why should all of us be wasting time stuck at traffic lights because of some dumb myth that slow acceleration saves fuel ? Its kind of fun to get on the gas and go, that little yee ha feeling is good !
Life is short, indeed. Who was it suggested we should be able to drive our age? At 75 YO I don't have a lot of time to waste driving around at 55 MPH.
Don't know if you ever seen or have a car that has the gauge that can calculate the current miles/gal on the fly based on your driving. Well mine does and guess what? When I throw it into Sport mode and do some sprinted driving I'm seeing 9-10 miles/gal on the gauge. If drive normally and do smooth and steady accelerations I'm seeing 15 or more. My car is rated at 18/28mpg so that's half my gas mileage lost and how quickly my gas gauge went down easily reflects that.
You need to relax and find some patience. Traffic is a part of life on the road, and you probably should be just as happy that people are driving responsibly. An accident that bottle necks the intersection due to some speed racer will leave you trapped at the light for more than one cycle.
Flooring the throttle just shoves more air in the engine, which also shoves more fuel in. It's the transmission and it's gearing that is designed to maximize fuel efficiency based on the amount of fuel you dump in with your lead foot.
It's true that the engine's peak efficiency is near its peak volumetric efficiency, which is near the torque-peak. Depending on valve timing events (and myriad other things) this can be at pretty high rpm, though modern variable valve-timing systems can broaden the "sweet spot". However, all of this concerns how much horsepower the engine can extract from a given volumetric flow-rate of fuel. MPG, on the other hand, is partially about how much (or rather, how little) horsepower needed to be produced over a given distance, and partially about how efficiently that horsepower was produced. If very little horsepower was needed, even if the horsepower was inefficiency produced, the overall fuel usage will be low.
Running the numbers, it's pretty shocking as to how much more power is required (and fuel expended) for maximum acceleration from say 0 to 45 mph, than to cruise steadily at 70 mph on a level highway. This one reason why city-mpg is so much lower than highway-mpg, despite the aerodynamic drag penalty at highway speeds.
So much for the physics. Now what about the psychology? It often happens in American driving, that the very same people who consistently exceed the posted speed limit by 10-15 mph, will accelerate slowly, and turn slowly. This behavior strikes me as being odd. If one aims for spirited driving and exhilaration, why not pursue it where there are better opportunities for acceleration, whether linear or angular? But if one aims for maximum safety and law-obedience, why exceed the speed limit in a straight line?
Last edited by ohio_peasant; 12-08-2017 at 12:28 PM..
Lots of problems with your analysis, but either way people aren’t accelerating slowly to save fuel. They just don’t want to drop the clutch and drag race from red light to red light. They can only go as fast as the car in front of them and you’re supposed to maintain separation as the speed picks up. Your dream of everybody drag racing in unison through every red light isn’t going to happen. Just put on an audiobook and chill out.
Next time live closer to work.
Great strawman there recharacterizing the OP's request into a plea to drag race in unison.
The people making a gradual acceleration when the light turn green are not the ones making you miss the light. It is the gadget-drivers who sit through half the light, then look up from their gadget and decide to go when the light is yellow.
You need to relax and find some patience. Traffic is a part of life on the road, and you probably should be just as happy that people are driving responsibly. An accident that bottle necks the intersection due to some speed racer will leave you trapped at the light for more than one cycle.
Flooring the throttle just shoves more air in the engine, which also shoves more fuel in. It's the transmission and it's gearing that is designed to maximize fuel efficiency based on the amount of fuel you dump in with your lead foot.
It's apparently a contagious case of straw.
Well, sure...you want everyone to have to walk about and abolish all cars but that's not practical. >.>
Oh man, look I caught strawman-itis too now! OMG! lol
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