COMMANDER'S LOG

Stardate 200807.21

HybridFest: There and Back

Madison, Wisconsin

Stardate 200807.21 I was using the GPS in the Zhang Heng, and I decided to take what it called the "Short Route" rather than one of the Quick Routes. Big mistake. It took me through all sorts of suburban roads and busy highways, and added at least 1 1/2 hours to my driving time. After a brief stop at the hotel, I got 3 gal of gas. I was almost out, but did not want to be carrying the weight of a full tank of gas for the Fuel Economy Competition the next day. I stayed with Bill and Lorraine Adkins who have been living in Madison many years. I had not seen Bill and Lorraine since graduating from Earlham, over 40 years ago. Bill had turned into a crusty old coot and Lorraine was hobbling along with a number of physical ailments.

They were living on a farm 10 miles east of Madison, along with 2 cats, 2 dogs, 2 horses, and 2 adopted grandchildren who were there when I arrived. I got settled in, showered, and then drove back to the hotel to meet the other HybridFest members who were negotiating where to go for dinner. We ended up at an Italian place where the food was quite good, and the cameraderie even better.

7/18 The next morning, after a car wash and a stop to get flowers, started at the park, already packed with oodles of Prii, Honda Insights, and a smattering of other vehicles.

Hobbit checks out the Chevy Hybrid SUV, and figures out how to disable it completely within two minutes.

The event of the day was the MPG competition.

We had an orientation and were given a starting time. At the start we were to be given a map that included split times at various places on the course. This was important because there was a fairly restrictive time requirement: Just driving slow would not get you a The course was 26.9 miles long, with stretches at 35, 45, and 50 MPH, many stop signs, and rolling hills. When driven at the speed limit, it took 46 minutes. We were required to finish in 51 minutes, and were penalized for every two minute interval we were over up to 10 minutes. If it took you more than 61 minutes to finish, you were disqualified. The math did not look good. On my own drives at home, I got maximum MPG at about 23 MPH on flat ground with no stop signs. So I arrived at my appointed time, car emptied of excess weight (though I kept my spare tire; some people took everything out that was not nailed down), tires pumped up to 50 PSI, less than 3 gallons of gas.

I was obviously a bit psyched, because they failed to give me the map at the start, and I did not realize it until I was underway. The problem was not that I could not find the route: it was maked with signs, and I had an idea of the overal shape and dimensions of the route. The problem was that I did not have the split times that would tell me how close I was at any point to being on schedule. Also I did not start my stopwatch until a few minutes into the course. Driving this competition was nerve wracking. In addition to maximumizing gas milage, I was always watching the clock to see if I was at least close to being on time, which resulting in an intense mental and driving juggling act. My milage at the end was 55.9 MPG, which seemed reasonable to me compared with my previous attempts. But I was 5 minutes over, which gave me a 6% penalty. As I walked around I heard people talking numbers in the 70 MPG range and more. As came in, it became apparent that, relative to the other drivers, I had done TERRIBLY. Yes, boys and girls, at this level 55 MPG in a Prius is terrible. The final results had the winner at --are you ready?-- 97+ MPG and within the alloted time, in an unmodified Prius. I was DEAD LAST. How humiliating is that? Even the press reporters who went out for a trial in the morning, under supervision from the better hypermilers did better on their first try. The worst of it is that I do not know what I did wrong. Maybe I need a personal coaching ride with one of these guys.

In the evening GM engineer gave a speech about GM's plans for the future.

She almost convinced me that Volt is for real, not just something GM is hyping to look good. It appears, given the company's difficulties, that some are thinking could be terminal, that GM is betting the company on the Volt. If it makes it the company will, otherwise no more Chevy's, ever.

It let up just as the procession began, and that was the end of it. Rain at this point in a car show is actually advantageous, because wiping off the car at that point becomes a touch up car wash, and is the final prep before the show. The bugs come off, and you just need a little bit of instant detailer spray to take care of any remaining stuff. I got to the showplace and ended up parked between two high visibility vehicles, equivalent to following the dog act in a talent show. In front of me was the Zenn electric car, and behind me the human/electric hybrid Twike.

Hard to know whether that helped or hindered. People spent a lot of time around the Twike, but it may have drawn more audience to our end of the lot. Since we were right next to the County Fair Grounds (part of the fair, actually), there was a lot of pedestrian traffic. There were lots of people of various degrees of knowledge to talk to.

A few asked me if I worked for Toyota. There were the usual scattering of Trekkers, including of the jaw dropped variety, who are great fun to share one's enthusiasm with.

I got to go inside to the exhibit hall and see the assortment of exhibits: electric, propane, biodiesel, etc. Toyota had its big educational/promotional semi-trailer there. I went through that and got rewarded with a self-charging flashlight.

At the end of the exhibit day we all drove out of the fairgrounds together in a procession. As we left the OUT OF GAS indicator was blinking. Panic! I had forgotten that I had only put three gallons of gas in the car yesterday, and had left it running during the show to power the sound system and lights. I had no idea how much (or little) gas I had left. I fired up the GPS and used it to find the nearest gas station, something I had never used it for before. It worked great, found me a gas station within a mile. As soon as the procession left the fairgrouds I split off and headed for the gas station. Made it, and probably still had a gallon of gas left in the tank. That evening was the awards banquet. People's Choice went to Jay Groh ("The Force") who had won in a previous year, and was now sporting fender skirts. I won Best Exterior Graphics. Hobbit won Best Educational, and Neicy won something like Most Loaded, because of all the stuff she was carrying at the time. So I had an award to compensate for the loss in the driving competition. I also won a door prize, and Electric Vehicle Mode Switch, which I already had. I was going to donate it, but my switch as been so unreliable, I thingk I will use it as a replacement.

7/20 There were presentations scheduled Sunday Morning at the hotel, including mine. Hobbit did a great show explaining the role of hybrids, and some of the engineering reasons why they worked so well. I did my presentation on my tests of Cruise Control vs. Pulse & Glide driving techniques. It seemed to be received quite well, although Wayne Gerdes later referred to it as "nonsense," since people were getting mileages of 70-90 MPG using hypermiling techniques. In the afternoon, I went with Bill on a shopping run. I was looking for some stuff to make mosquito netting for the car, so I could sleep in the car with the windows cracked open. After much running around, someone in a store mentioned something called "tulle," which is the stuff bridal veils were made of. Kinda stiff meshy stuff. We went to a fabric store, and they had plently, including colors, which meant I didn't have to look like I had stolen some bride's trousseau. I picked Coleman camping green. I bought food and sundries for camping, and then we went to a Mexican restaurant. Was about as authentic Mexican as I have seen North of the Border: the waiters understood so little English we did not get exactly what we ordered, and couldn't make that clear, but the food was great nonetheless. We then drove to the University of Wisconson, and had ice cream at the lakeview place where they have ice cream at UW.