Corvette Gets Better Gas Mileage than Prius? - Garage419

so true, vettes get some of the best gas mileages and still have huge engines

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/10/11/corvette-z06-wins-mpg-marathon-in-the-uk/
unbelievable - it's true!

Nice episode. C5's never appealed to me, but there is no denying the performance. A lot of people hear the big HP numbers and assume 'Vettes are gas hogs. The Corvette Z06 is the only 500+hp car in the world that does not pay a gas guzzler tax.

I regurarly pull 35mpg at 70mph in my '08 C6. Speeds between 65mph and 75mph seems to be mid to low 30's.
My '96 LT4 used to get 28mpg at 78mph. I could cruise at 100mph and still average over 20mph in the 350hp LT4, and it is even better in 436hp LS3.

Great episode.  I was hoping you had a trick up your sleeve and were going to win the milage bet.  Were you driving a bone stock C5?  With all the tuning experience out there for the LSx motors, hard to think there isn't some more MPG's to be had.

The Mazdaspeed 3 gets a 37mpg hwy rating here in Canada, from the dealership. I myself, if I stick to the speed limit, can get 40mpg+. Ok, in the city a hybrid will kill me mpg wise…

Matt

I want to comment on the decision of moving drag racings Top Fuel and Funny Car classes to a 1000 ft race.  I am a huge Drag Racing fan and in my own opinion is that the NHRA did this because the tracks are unwilling to make the necessary changes to their track.  The accident to Scott Kelita was certainly tragic but, I believe the NHRA has acted far to quickly on their decision because of the ongoing investigation.  The new track in Morth Carolina I believe will be the bench mark for new tracks to come and changes to existing changes to be made.  they did exactly what the sport and speeds need.  They lengthened the shutdown area and also made changes to the excape pit and barriers.  I believe a quarter mile is 1320 ft not 1000.  So now they have the standing 1000 ft race??  This is difinitely not right.  I live in the Pacific Northwest and our racing season up here is short and I beieve this change should be reversed ASAP.  Make the tracks do their necesary upgrades and get on with it.  A quarter mile is a quarter mile not 1000 ft.  If I was able to post with an attachment I would send you a copy of the car I am in the process of building.  1967 Dodge Dart, 500 ci Chrysler w/approx. 775 hp., all the trick stuff.  That is all, I just stumbled over Garage419 on youtube and have listened to your commentary for a few hours and I must say you have certaily done your homework.  Keep up the good work.

Unrelated but I don't care, I need to know if I am seeing this right. 

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=41522995

At 1:48, is that a RS200 or am I losing my mind?

PS Great show by the way!

Matt Matt Matt! Don't you know the real secret to getting the greatest mileage out of a downhill slope? You don't take it out of gear and let it coast. An idling engine still burns gas! Throw it down a gear ride on the compression. There's virtually no fuel running through the injectors and the engine's pumping nothing but air. It's way better than coasting. Try it on a car with an MPG meter and you'll see it turn a 99.9 MPG like Mike's Prius displayed.

Nice show guys!!! I like it when you do such a type of episode!!

Fun video.  Although I'd like to point out something that you may have not discussed properly and is often mistaken about coefficient of drag.  The Cd numbers you site, 0.26 and 0.29, can not be directly compared to find which vehicle has more drag.  The frontal area of the car is just as important to finding the actual drag force on the car.

The reason this is important:
The corvette may have a lower frontal area than the prius (I would guess it does) and although the corvette has a higher Cd it may still have LESS drag than the prius.  Hopefully that makes sense, if not i'm sure somebody explains it better somewhere else.

At least this was a slightly more balanced view than TG presented a few years back.  The Prius is a great gadget car, and is fun to drive in its own way.  I get as much of a kick out of trying to master the dashboard "video game" as I do pulling Gs in my WRX.  As a car guy, I can appreciate the tech that goes into both.  

For the record, the Prius is almost impossible to measure MPG by calculation on.  There is an expanding bladder in the fuel tank that more or less eliminates fuel evaporation, but adds a lot of variability to fillups.  After averaging a bunch of tanks most folks find the dash computer is nearly right on, maybe 1 mpg high, but each fill up can be 10 or 15% off or more either direction.

The Prius also benefits highly from the same sort of tricks Farah was playing in the Vette.  Momentum driving and learning to manipulate the "gears" and modes pays big dividends.  Put the cruise on 70mph and I get 48mpg all day long.  Bring it down to 45-55 and drive smart and 55-65mpg is the norm.  There are even guys out there running in the 70s, and driving like grandma has nothing to do with it.  Its all about managing energy storage, both kinetic and battery.

Good segment overall.

Matt, move the competition to the interstate.  My C5 gets better mileage at 75 mph than at 55 mph.  (and that is without factoring in the "smiles per mile")

That's very interesting. Matt, does the C4 have that cylinder bank shut-down, because that seems like the only way a V8 could get that kind of mileage. However, you were nursing the throttle, so I don't know if you could consider this a real comparison test.

Love Bear Mt. btw.

Top gear called , clarkson wants his show from 3 years ago back.. Weaksauce..I expect more from 419 then blatant plagiarism of real journalists.

Very COOl... one of the best episodes ever!! I was just wondering what were you drinking. Miler Lite maybe?? looks like Spinelli (great name BTW) had a Guinness but I'm not sure about you?  

You guys rock.
Who needs Top Gear USA?
Great Episode; great idea; well produced!

Farah vs. Spinelli here really was kinda like Clarkston vs. May. Does anyone else see that parallel? 

Of course you guys dont need to try to be Top Gear or anyone else. You have a great thing going on all on your own, so keep it up!

Im not really a fan of the C5 (aesthetically), but that experiment was cool to see. Matt, the C6 (which kicks arse) is rated at 28hwy with the LS2 and a Manual...do you think you could break 30mpg with the C6? 

And, in response to your previous episodes discussion...I think Parente is right and government will eventually strive to make our roads more like the Demoliton Man movie...but if so Im sure you'd be the one hiding out in your underground community while rocking an Olds 442....