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Not sure if this is the correct section... I was wondering what people were getting for fuel economy as compared to the drivetrain donor vehicle? The reason I ask is I'm about to start on the fuel tank for my own build and not sure how much capacity I should go for. Due to the lightweight I would expect city mileage to be way up. Highway though the aero on these cars is atrocious so could MPG even go down?

My donor is an RX-8 which gets 17mpg. I'd like to get a comfortable 200 mile range from the tank. That puts me around 13 gallons which is a pretty big tank. I'm hoping collective wisdom here says MPG will go up and I can get away with a smaller tank.

You're going to need a break after sitting in the car for 2 hours. I went with a tank large enough to give 120 miles plus some reserve and never needed more.

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-Andrew
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You might want to take a look at a thread that I started a couple of years ago on basically the same topic! The guys came up with some great info! Of particular interest to you will probably the info from Chuck Shaffer (rx7locost)! http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=17276&p=199690&hilit=mileage#p199690

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Mike - Read my story at http://twinlakesseven.blogspot.com/

That thread link was perfect. Chucks car was getting 20 but makes 70hp less so that 17mpg number might not be far off.

I'm not so much looking to do 200 miles in one stint. I plan on commuting in the car and would like to make 4 or 5 days between fill ups. Seems like a bizarre choice for a commuter but it was a compromise with the significant other over driving a motorcycle after our boy was born. I tell people it's a super unsafe car but a really, really safe motorcycle

I think you'll get closer to the 20, if not a bit better. MPG is less about the HP your engine "can' make, but more about the HP you are using. I never tried to optimize the MS controller for fuel consumption. I just made sure it wasn't running too lean. I think here was some improvement to be made. Still, I ran calculations based on advertised MPG for my original '91 RX, and other's reported MPG, adjusted for estimatedfrontal areas, weight, and Cda's (Coefficient of drag). I also ran calcs based on other other's Locosts, their donor vehicles and compared them to my donor. I always came up with right around 20 MPG. Funny how that worked out.



That's the same way I always looked at it. At the same time, I figured that others didn't see me in my Locost, like they don't see motorcycles. And always tried to drive accordingly.

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Chuck.

“Any suspension will work if you don’t let it.” - Colin Chapman

Visit my ongoing MGB Rustoration log: over HERE

Or my Wankel powered Locost log : over HERE

And don't forget my Cushman Truckster resto Locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=17766