In depth Advice
The Top 10 Tips page will give you a set of really useful tips that will help you to reduce your fuel consumption, but they are only a quick summary of some of the main points.
On this and the next few pages, we'll look at some of these tips in more depth to really give you an insight into the techniques.
On this and the next few pages, we'll look at some of these tips in more depth to really give you an insight into the techniques.
Minimising drag and air resistance
On the Top 10 Tips page we mentioned that you should try to avoid having your window open at higher speeds (for example whilst on the motorway or an A road). It is said by some that its actually more fuel efficient to have the air conditioning on instead of opening your windows at 70mph - although we couldn't find any firm evidence of this.You might be wondering why this is the case. The simple reason is that having the windows open increases what is known as "drag", i.e. the resistance your car generates whilst trying to move through the air. As you go faster, the amount of drag increases proportionally, which means you need more energy to overcome the drag and stay at your current speed - this means higher fuel consumption.
Its not just windows that will cause drag either! Listed below are some steps that will help reduce drag.
- As mentioned above, when travelling at speed close your windows and sunroof.
- If you are lucky enough to be driving a convertible in the summer, stop and put the roof up (provided its safe to do so) before you drive on motorways or fast A roads.
- Remove any roof-racks, roof-boxes or bike racks when you aren't using them. These are some of the worst offenders when it comes to drag!
- Its great to support for the national team, but remember to remove your England flag from your car when the matches are over.
- If your car's bonnet is covered with dead flies and lumps of mud and goodness knows what else, wash your car! It may seem like a pretty pointless thing to mention, but all those extra lumps and rough edges will disrupt the airflow passing over your car, causing more drag. Oh and everyone likes to see a shiny motor!
Hopefully by following these points (and in particular the ones about windows and roof-racks etc) you'll see a good saving in fuel consumption on long motorway journeys. On the next page we'll look at how to read the road ahead.