While going to Fort Worth I decided to test my own hypermiling techniques. I wrote about these techniques before I ever heard of the term hypermiling. I called my techniques Deceleration Management.
On the way up to Fort Worth we were driving with my in-laws (in separate cars). I took the lead most of the way and using my radar detector I tried to keep our speed at about 80 the entire way. Granted, trying to maintain 80 was not easy because of traffic, but we were close. This was the only part of driving that was not including in the hypermiling. After all, the best gas mileage comes from going slower.
However, I never used cruise control and I milked that gas pedal for every chance I could. My wife could not even tell i was doing this, that’s how subtle I was with the gas pedal. Leaving from my house I reset the mileage computer and when we arrived at my brother-in-law’s house after 3 stops, I showed an average of 31.7 mpg. This was with out 2007 BMW 335i with an EPA rating of 17/26 city/highway. That means I beat the highway mileage rating by over 5 mpg! Not bad at all.
On the return visit I was trying to make much better time. With two very short stops the mileage I got from the hotel to home was 27.6 mpg. Still better than the EPA, but I was averaging closer to 90 mpg whenever traffic would allow, and frequesntly bursted to that speed when traffic cleared the way.
