FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[stonemonkey]

Wait, the article says the reasoning is to reduce fuel consumption, does the government buy all fuel collectively in Spain and distribute it to people, or do people buy it privately? Because I don't see why this is a method to reduce fuel consumption, supply and demand will control the prices, subsidise alternative means of transport to encourage people to use them, or is emissions the problem?

Engines use considerably less fuel at 55mph compared to 65mph and compared to 75mph the difference is even more dramatic. It just is.

See Freds post at the top of this page 2 of this topic for why.

[vaptin]

Wait, the article says the reasoning is to reduce fuel consumption, does the government buy all fuel collectively in Spain and distribute it to people, or do people buy it privately? Because I don't see why this is a method to reduce fuel consumption, supply and demand will control the prices, subsidise alternative means of transport to encourage people to use them, or is emissions the problem?

Engines use considerably less fuel at 55mph compared to 65mph and compared to 75mph the difference is even more dramatic. It just is.

I'm not arguing whether this will reduce fuel consumption (reading back what I wrote its clearly misleading), I don't think this is the correct method to do something about it. If people want to use up their fuel, let them, it'll only get more expensive anyway and more and more will be priced into conserving fuel. Just provide alternatives for those who would like to use less fuel.

[myownalias]

Wait, the article says the reasoning is to reduce fuel consumption, does the government buy all fuel collectively in Spain and distribute it to people, or do people buy it privately? Because I don't see why this is a method to reduce fuel consumption, supply and demand will control the prices, subsidise alternative means of transport to encourage people to use them, or is emissions the problem?

Engines use considerably less fuel at 55mph compared to 65mph and compared to 75mph the difference is even more dramatic. It just is.

Surely that varies from car to car; for example in my old 2.0L L4 will do 70mph in top gear (4th) at 3,500rpm; my new 3.5L V6 will do 70mph in top gear (5th) at 1,300rpm, surely that would mean that less fuel is used overall if that speed is maintained. I know the engine capacity is 1.5L larger but I have driven 2.0L L4 hire cars at 70mph doing 1,500rpm.

[killem2]

These law makers should be getting down the car companies throats to improve economy rather than forcing the population to slow down. All that does it cause congestion and in return slows cars down to a crawl if during rush hours and then wastes more fuel.

But that's crazy talk.

[Jabberwocky]

fuel consumption has a lot of contribuing factors

Load of the car (weight)

the fuel air mix can be affected by things like temperature of the engine outside air temperature, fuel temperature, air pressure etc

tyre pressures

wheel alignment

oil

the list goes on

[stonemonkey]

Wait, the article says the reasoning is to reduce fuel consumption, does the government buy all fuel collectively in Spain and distribute it to people, or do people buy it privately? Because I don't see why this is a method to reduce fuel consumption, supply and demand will control the prices, subsidise alternative means of transport to encourage people to use them, or is emissions the problem?

Engines use considerably less fuel at 55mph compared to 65mph and compared to 75mph the difference is even more dramatic. It just is.

Surely that varies from car to car; for example in my old 2.0L L4 will do 70mph in top gear (4th) at 3,500rpm; my new 3.5L V6 will do 70mph in top gear (5th) at 1,300rpm, surely that would mean that less fuel is used overall if that speed is maintained. I know the engine capacity is 1.5L larger but I have driven 2.0L L4 hire cars at 70mph doing 1,500rpm.

Drag due to air resistance increases exponentially with speed so the amount of energy (from fuel) required to maintain your speed also increases exponentially.

You can't really use the revs to work that out like that, if you drive along a flat road at 30mph in 3rd gear you barely press the accelerator, to maintain 30 mph up a hill you have to press down more, your revs stay the same but you burn more fuel.