[DeTomaso] Pantera Mileage?

Tue Apr 1 20:52:06 EDT 2008

I got 20-21 with my mostly stock 351C.

I got about 19-20 with aluminum heads and a CompCams 282S (slightly rough
idle, solid lifters).

It didn't seem to matter how fast I went as long as I wasn't accelerating a
lot - i.e. constant 65mph was about the same as constant 75mph.

Autometer digital speedo.

I have a larger solid cam in it now, but I haven't driven it yet.  Maybe
Saturday.

I got about 19-20 in my 428 Mustang with CompCams 282S and 2 Holley 600's.

My wife gets about 26 in her Porsche 3.0L Boxster.

You'd think the difference would be greater.  The big bad hot rods with
carburetors and medium sized solid cams still got around 20mpg while my
wife's 3 litre modern computer controlled engine only got 26.  Sure it's a
performance car, but only 6 more mpg on the highway?

I've posted this before.  Our Honda Insight gets about 70mpg at 70mph.  It
also comes with a sewing machine attachment in case you get a hole in your
socks.

Will.

-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On
Behalf Of Ken Green
Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 5:29 PM
To: Charles McCall; msm at portata.com; detomaso at realbig.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Pantera Mileage?

You bring up an interesting issue, how mileage depends on RPM and speed.  We
have talked about how much HP it takes to sustain a given speed in a
Pantera, but we didn't really talk about how much of that HP is just
spinning the engine, and how much is overcoming wind resistance at that
speed.  It would be interesting to see some plots for common cars with these
two components of drag plotted versus speed for a given gearing.

  Ken

Charles McCall <charlesmccall at gmail.com> wrote:
  It may seem obvious but mileage is HIGHLY related to speed, or at least to
rpm.

For the first 5 years in Europe I assumed that my Pantera got roughly 11mpg.
This was in the good ol´ days, when European speeding tickets were $35 for
100mph... so I typically drove 100++ mph on a daily basis. A tank of gas
would last less than 300 km. On a GT5-S with a 4.22 R&P, this means cruising
at 4000+rpm to reach 100mph. 

I was shocked when after 5 years of ownership, during a long trip with rain
I got nearly 400km on the same tank... while cruising at 3000rpm. As a
result I've done experimentation and I can increase or decrease the fuel
consumption by perhaps 40% with my right foot. 

As a side note, I owned my Audi for roughly the same 5 years assuming that
the consumption was 10.5 liters/100km, which is how they measure mileage in
Europe and my on-board computer gives me both instantaneous and average
consumption. Slowing down from 170 k-/hr average to 130 k/hr average gained
more than 1.0 liters/100km. I knew that gas mileage was speed related but
never really realized to what extent. I have a rather long drive to work and
gas is expensive over here - further experimentation has shown that if I had
any discipline at all I could get 9.2 liters/100 on the highway, and ever
better at slower speeds. I just don't have much discipline... 

Charles McCall
1985 DeTomaso Pantera GT5-S #9375
"Raising Pantera Awareness across Europe"
http://members.aol.com/PanteraGT5S1985/

-----Mensaje original-----
De: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] En
nombre de msm at portata.com
Enviado el: martes, 01 de abril de 2008 22:10
Para: detomaso at realbig.com
Asunto: [DeTomaso] Pantera Mileage?

Question for people with stock or near stock 351s -- 

What mileage to you get on the highway when driving at or near the speed
limit?

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