errantember

With the transaction to purchase the Metro proceeding at trans-Pacific speeds, I've been bouncing around naming ideas for the car. My initial choice was Levi, for Leviathan, with a mermaid's-ass-in-jeans paint job upgrade. However, the throaty growl imparted by the new "high performance" catalytic converter suggests another name:

The Green Hornet!

I did my first mileage check with this past tank of gas. The driving was almost 100% in-town with the AC running, and I have to admit a little disappointment in the fact that I only got 35 MPG under these worst-case conditions.

However, I immediately followed up with a night trip to D/FW from Austin, with minimal AC usage and a limpet-like affinity for the ass of local truckers, I'm proud to report a recorded mileage of over 56 MPG!

And this is just the beginning. I haven't even changed the *oil* yet. While drafting the trucks, I almost got into the redline on the engine temperature. I see online now that this is common, probably a combination of heat from the truck in front plus lack of airflow to cool down the engine. There's an enormous online community of people who know how to trick out Metros to get better fuel economy. Some crazy people are getting over 100 MPG. I'm also gonna put in some Duralube after the next oil change. Although I've seen conflicting reports on it's usefulness online, I have an anecdote that proves to me it works. I used to have an '84 RX-7. After I put Duralube into the engine, it would take an additional 10-15 minutes for the engine temperature to increase, which was *very* noticeable in cold weather, because you'd generally freeze your ass off!