Changed my driving style, fuel economy significantly up.

[KPC1.8TQuat]

So it's knocking on winter here in New England. Already had a few inches of snow and ice last week. Swapped over to the Blizzaks and took the OZs and Hankooks off. My normal daily commute for work is a minimum of 60 miles or a max of 90 miles depending on the day. The past few years I have been getting about 320 miles to the tank. When I first bought the car back in 06 I was getting over 400 miles to a tank/15 gallon fill up. I attributed the loss in economy over the past few years to my porsche bbk upgrade and running larger sticky tires, and wheels (even though according to the scale in my bathroom my Ultraleggeras only weigh 19 pounds, 18"). Typically for work commute I set the cruise at 3k rpms and just let it go (tiptonic transmission in D mode) and like I said, 320 miles to a tank.

The past two tanks, the only thing I have done different is set my cruise to 2.5-2.6k rpm and my range has increased to 380+ miles per tank. Merging on to the highway I will usually put it in tiptronic mode and go WOT untill I am up to highway speed, and then just set the cruise, switching back to D mode. Around town, I have not changed my driving, i.e like keeping it out of the boost (stock ECU, turbo back exhaust).

I neglected to mention speeds when referring to setting the cruise because it has been my experience that the speedos in our cars are notoriously liberal reading, and once you change the wheel and tire dimensions that makes it even worse. According to the GPS on my iphone, the speedo reads consistently anywhere from 3 to 5 mph heavy.

Anyway, just thought I would share.

[Kittrell]

once you change the wheel and tire dimensions that makes it even worse.

Just want to point out that most do not change their tire overall dimension when upping their wheel size, the OD of the tire is usually the same. And even if they do, in the Audi world the change is so infinitesimal that it is not going to affect your speedo reading. You are only going to see a noticeable difference in something like the Jeep world, where you might go from a stock 29" tire to a 37" tire.

As far as the thread title, well duh................

[KPC1.8TQuat]

good to know.