Patience, steady foot on the gas key to fuel efficiency

Patience, steady foot on the gas key to fuel efficiency

Imanuddin
The Jakarta Post
Lido, Sukabumi

It was not about how vigorously you could rev up your car's
engine to exceed the speed limit and reach the finish line ahead
of the rest.

Nor was it about controlling or pumping up adrenaline to
overcome your fears and win a tight race.

It also had nothing to do with whether the you were skilled
enought to take a turn at full speed.

And it was definitely not about how sophisticated and
aerodynamic your car is so that it can run as fast and as smooth
as a jet plane.

Instead, it was about controlling "emotions", remaining
patient and maintaining the car's speed to avoid unnecessary fuel
consumption.

With most car manufacturers offering now the latest technology
in engines to provide low-fuel consumption cars, Japan's Honda
has come out with a compact i-series 1,500 cc engine known as the
i-DSI, which stands for Intelligent Dual and Sequential Ignition.

With the system, the engine is capable of producing a torque
of 13.1 kilogram per meter at the low engine rotation of 2,700
rotations per minute (rpm), thus allowing a driver to get ideal
power with low engine rotation and with less fuel consumption.

This i-DSI system, applied in the newly launched New Honda
City, was tested during the recent All New Honda City Eco-
Challenge tour to Lido recreational site in Lido, Bogor.

The route to Lido, a combination of highways and intercity
roads, was not a smooth one.

Jagorawi, the country's oldest toll road, did not guarantee
unhindered traffic as it was packed with weekend travelers
seeking an escape to the higher grounds of Puncak, Bandung or
Sukabumi in West Java.

Another problem was the public minivans jamming the road after
the exit gate of the Ciawi toll road, as well as intercity buses
crowding the intersection connecting Ciawi and Sukabumi as well
as Ciawi and Puncak.

Such obstacles usually prompt frustrated drivers to come down
hard on the gas pedal whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Technically speaking, such a maneuver will prompt greater fuel
consumption.

Sudden acceleration will have a similar effect.

The above technical theories proved correct for the winners of
the fuel-efficiency contest.

Bibid, a driver for the Republika daily team which won the PDA
(personal digital assistance) for the first prize winner category
for media participants, confirmed the theories.

"I was always eager to speed up along the way to Lido, but my
navigator, who happens to be my younger brother, told me not to
do so," the journalist said.

"'If you really don't want to win the PDA, I do, so please be
slow always'," he quoted his brother as saying.

Elin Ngadimin, the winner in the customers' category for
automatic transmission with a record of 1.6 liters of fuel for
the 75-kilometer race, or 1 liter consumption of fuel for 46.38
kilometers, agreed with Bibid that maintaining a constant speed
was important.

Reaching the finish line at the Lido Lake Resort in one hour
25 minutes and 44 seconds, Elin said she always tried to maintain
the same speed of below 100 kilometers per hour along the roads
and hardly ever overtook vehicles in front, except if they
stopped.

Above all the technical and technological aspects, the
winners' experience prove the key factor to low fuel consumption
was not the car and its technology, but the attitude of the
person behind the steering wheel.