I took a drive the other day to see what the RS would do on a normal 'vacation' type trip.
I drove east from San Diego on cruise control, running the posted speed limit of 70 mph. The climb east goes from approx 600' to peaks of 4000'+ elevation (at least 3 good climbs of 4-6%), my DIC MPG showed 24.5 mpg after the last grade that I climbed. This is at approx 70 miles travelled. The fwy then descends to near sea level over a 13 mile down grade (6%), which I ran at the posted speed limit of 65 mph (the RS would actually overspeed in 6th gear while coasting, so touched the brakes a few times). Once down in the 100 F. heat of the desert, I turned towards a 2 lane road that meanders through the desert, with a posted speed limit of 55 mph. I set the cruise control and noted the mpg on DIC was 36.3 mpg. There were a few sections that I needed to brake, use 3rd-4th gear for a climb via switch backs, and I used the boost a few times, dropping the DIC to 35.1 mpg. A good climb up hwy 79 towards Julian in 3rd/4th gear @ 42 mph kept the DIC at 34.5 mpg. Once up top in Julian, I basically followed the flow of traffic, running 50-55 mph into Ramona (the DIC popped up to 38 mpg), then down hwy 67 back towards Santee, CA. where the DIC showed 39.1 mpg (Through Ramona and down the 67 I hit about 4 red stop lights, sat at each for about 1-2 minutes).
The result? The DIC showed exactly 39 mpg when I went to fill up. 178.0 miles traveled, and amazingly 4.403 gallons used (I attempted to top off the car 3 times, just as I did when I filled up). 40.4269 MPG.
If I was even able to squeeze in another 1/10 into the tank, that would be 39.55 mpg.
I ran with the AC on the entire way as well, did not hypermile it (didn't put in neutral and coast), only drove the posted speed limit.
I am planning a trip to the Grand Canyon in the Fall, and will be interested to see how it does then (run 5+ over in CA, 75 mph, then 5+ in AZ, 80 mph).
:banana:
