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For those who are wondering, yes, fuel mileage with the Magnacharger supercharger kit CAN be very good under decent conditions and with a conservative driver.
I ran tests both yesterday and today, commuting in to work. I come in very early (I'm one the road before 6am). It's an 18 mile route from the western suburbs where we currenrtly are staying to literally the center of the city (I work at 100 Congress Avenue in Austin, which is viewed as the literal center of the city).
There are 13 traffic lights or stop signs. It's VERY hilly (Austin is built around an escarpment). Speed limit ranges from 30 mph to 65 mph. I didn't count the number of lights I had to stop at yesterday, but today I had to stop or slow down enough to make a left hand turn at crawl speed, at 5 out of 13 of the lights. Stops or near-stops are VERY destrucvtive to gas mileage in an SSR, due to the WEIGHT of the vehicle.
To run the test, I reset the average fuel mileage reading on the driver information center to zero, and then begin the trip. I check the DIC again when I have the SSR parked in its regular spot in the underground parking garage. I drive very gently when doing this test, like a soccer mom would.
Yesterday, the driver information center reported 18.8 mpg for the trip. This morning, it reported 19.1 mpg.
I fnd these figures VERY acceptable.
Now, let's talk about the REVERSE trip home, in stop and go rush hour, around 5pm. I did that test yesterday afternoon and got 13.9 mpg!
The reason for the huge difference of course is the amount of acceleration required during that trip home versus the trip in. That stop and go, and even the non-stop and go portions of the trip, really bite into the mileage as the engine has to accelerate almost 5000 lb of vehicle, fuel, and driver every time you get slowed or stopped and have to re-accelerate.
So there you go. 400 to 450 supercharged rear wheel horsepower AND a 4.56 rear axle don't have to mean lousy gas mileage. But, driving in stop and go traffic DOES mean lousy gas mileage, when your vehicle is HEAVY.
Jim G
I ran tests both yesterday and today, commuting in to work. I come in very early (I'm one the road before 6am). It's an 18 mile route from the western suburbs where we currenrtly are staying to literally the center of the city (I work at 100 Congress Avenue in Austin, which is viewed as the literal center of the city).
There are 13 traffic lights or stop signs. It's VERY hilly (Austin is built around an escarpment). Speed limit ranges from 30 mph to 65 mph. I didn't count the number of lights I had to stop at yesterday, but today I had to stop or slow down enough to make a left hand turn at crawl speed, at 5 out of 13 of the lights. Stops or near-stops are VERY destrucvtive to gas mileage in an SSR, due to the WEIGHT of the vehicle.
To run the test, I reset the average fuel mileage reading on the driver information center to zero, and then begin the trip. I check the DIC again when I have the SSR parked in its regular spot in the underground parking garage. I drive very gently when doing this test, like a soccer mom would.
Yesterday, the driver information center reported 18.8 mpg for the trip. This morning, it reported 19.1 mpg.
I fnd these figures VERY acceptable.
Now, let's talk about the REVERSE trip home, in stop and go rush hour, around 5pm. I did that test yesterday afternoon and got 13.9 mpg!
The reason for the huge difference of course is the amount of acceleration required during that trip home versus the trip in. That stop and go, and even the non-stop and go portions of the trip, really bite into the mileage as the engine has to accelerate almost 5000 lb of vehicle, fuel, and driver every time you get slowed or stopped and have to re-accelerate.
So there you go. 400 to 450 supercharged rear wheel horsepower AND a 4.56 rear axle don't have to mean lousy gas mileage. But, driving in stop and go traffic DOES mean lousy gas mileage, when your vehicle is HEAVY.
Jim G
