The C4 Corvette is awesome.....

Every year for work, there is a convention trade show and school for ski area mechanics in Grand Junction Colorado. I always try to send my people because it is high value. This year was no different. The convention and trade show starts tomorrow oh, I am on the board so I had to be down in Grand Junction today to help set up.

So, I threw my mountain bike and luggage in the back of my Corvette, jumped in, cranked up the good Tunes on my Alpine and JL audio system and hit the road. I cruised at about 75 miles an hour down I-15, Route 6 to Green River, then I cranked it up to about 85 miles an hour across I-70 right into Grand Junction. I made good time. When I pulled off the exit from I-70, in to Grand Junction, here's what my average mpg showed for that 300 mile jaunt....



30.0
I ******* love it. Such a good car!

 

See that proves, Who needs a Prius just drive with respect and you can look good and get good mileage. Odds are you still had some while doing it.

 

On another note, it is often discussed about engine operating temperatures and what is the Right Temp. I have a thread about that that you can search for if you're interested in reading more details about it, but a subject that often comes up and I might even add this to that thread is oil temperatures.

"If your oil temp isn't above to 12 degrees, you don't boil off moisture!"
Those sentiments are crowed on here repeatedly. My response is simply that water evaporates at temperatures below 212 degrees. On my trip today, I paid a bit more attention to the oil temperature than I have in the past, with those threads and thoughts in mind. I was only partially surprised to see that at no point on the entire trip to my oil temperature rise above 212 degrees. I think 206 was the hottest temperature I saw. This is on a box stock LT1. Stock thermostat, everything is stock.






and somehow, my car made it to Grand Junction! I didn't fill the crankcase with water, there wasn't a fountain coming out the oil fill cap, the car survived! Just as GM intended. How can that be? Because water evaporates at temperatures below boiling. In fact at 200 degrees, water will evaporate quite rapidly.

so there is another little tidbit that I gleaned from this trip. One of my friends wants me to drive back home at 55 mph and see if I can beat the gas mileage observed by the "lawn mower carb guy." 🤣

 

Ha ha ha, yep, I "gave 'er the BEAN!" A few times throughout the trip. You know, just to get around people safely!😁

 

That country is beautiful , I lived in Vail as A young 20’s guy and actually got married on the covered bridge . I was at Fort Carson in Colorado , Springs for a few years . Love that country .
Amazing MPG sir , this is a well maintained 253,000 miles driven C4 Corvette according to your cluster !! I respect that commitment! Have fun , if you have time drive through “Garden of the gods” the Air Force Academy has a spectacular Chapel . Can’t believe I just gave the Air Force a atta boy !!! Lest they are dropping hell fire 🔥 on the enemy !! Lol ,
GOD bless ,
Enjoy Colorado ( hope for no golf ball size hail)
GOD bless ,
Robert

 

Did you notice any performance difference with the mile High oxygen levels ( not to mention the much much higher mountain passes ) just curious .
be safe ,
GOD bless ,
Robert

 

I've found in my 92 6 speed I get better MPG around 75-80 than 55-65. I think it has to do with the overdrive ratio. At a .5 reduction just a few more RPMs spin the tires a greater number of revolutions than a regular .68 O/D. You go a further distance when you calculate out the distance each piston travels to make an engine revolution and aren't making the engine work that much harder. If that makes sense. For example, you were doing under 2k RPMs going 79.

 

On my '94 6M I got better mpg at 55 than at 70-75. It was about 3 mpg different.

I also got 30 mpg on mostly highway trips (commute to work was 100 miles/day). Winter cold weather was 2-3 mpg less. I think because it takes longer to warm up all the fluids, especially the motor oil took about 15 miles to get to operating temps. So the commute mpg suffered on the commutes.

My '95 6M gets similar mpg. On a 1000 mile day I got 30 mpg from Illinois to S. Dakota. Even my '96 6M gets about the same (maybe 1 mpg less).

To me these are amazing cars. Great performance and economy too.

 

Killer mileage! Yeah I absolutely adore these cara through and through, I share your sentiment.

 

HTH did you get a MTB in your Corvette??

 

Grand Junction is at about 4,500 feet elevation or so. I actually live at 7000 FT elevation so the car does feel a bit more Snappy and Punchy here than at my house. But a lot of my driving is in Salt Lake City which is also a 4500 ft. All elevations I'm pretty used to.

 

Not just a mountain bike, the mountain bike, helmet, shoes, my backpack full of clothes for a week and some other miscellaneous stuff. Class-leading storage space!

In all seriousness, I take both wheels off the bike. Turn the handlebars 90° to the right, then lay the bike on its left side with the handlebars to the left of the driver seat back. The front fork ends sort of lay on top of the center console and the rear derailleur is in the right rear corner above the speaker. It just barely fits. But it fits.
Then I throw the two wheels on top of the bike in such a way that they don't rattle or scratch anything.

 

Here you go Tom :
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...rack-only.html

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...post1601514431

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...post1602285379

 

Damn, wish mine could do that. The LT1/6 speed cars are something else.

My 85 gets like 20 on the highway and 15 around town

 

85 in 4OD on the manual gearbox will do about the same!

 

i remember that drive! gorgeous!! post up some riding pics!

 

My '85 4+3 got about 25 on highway cruise.

My '87 4+3 got about 30 on highway cruise. On a 1000 mile day from Colorado to Illinois I got just over 30 mpg. I had just bought it in Colorado on vacation and I couldn't believe how good it was on mileage, but confirmed it with actual miles and number of gallons to fill up.

I think the difference is that my '87 had the 0.6 OD ratio while my '85 had the 0.67 OD ratio.

 

yes it may have been you years ago that informed there were two rear gear ratios for the 4+3. all about gearing.

 

the 85 engine is also very different, lower compression and awful iron smog heads vs the 87 aluminum heads. I can't imagine that isn't worth a bit as well.

I believe I have the OD higher ratio which puts me not too far off from the 25 mpg. Most of my highway driving around here is in the 70-75 range, the computer at least seems to think it gets much better mpg at 60, but I've never driven it far enough on a 60 mph road to know.

 

30 is super good, C5 guys boast about that.
Wayy better than any tpi car I had for sure.
The mileage these cars can get is 1 motivator for seeking one out as a driver rather than a 4 door xxx brand.
Good excuse to drive something fun that doesnt look like every plastic easter egg with wheels on the road today.

Guessing 6th gear lugs the engine too hard to be a benefit. My truck was the same. Up to 60ish in D the mpg was the same as using OD, only over 65 did the OD
benefit me..engine was closer to its happy zone. Lugging doesnt necessarily mean better mpg and isnt really good for it.