I was driving home tonight and I noticed (not that I havent before) that the 55 mph on my cluster is in orange whereas all the other numbers are white. What purpose does 55 mph serve? At 55 mph in 5th gear im at 2300 rpms....

 

in the 80's 55 was the legal highway speed dumbass...lol peace matt

 

Interesting. I would have never even thought that

 

ask my man Sammy

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by crexer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I was driving home tonight and I noticed (not that I havent before) that the 55 mph on my cluster is in orange whereas all the other numbers are white. What purpose does 55 mph serve? At 55 mph in 5th gear im at 2300 rpms.... </TD></TR></TABLE>
55mph used to be the national maximum speed limit in the United States. This was originally introduced during the oil crisis in 1974 in an effort to reduce the country's fuel consumption, and was what Sammy Hagar was bitching about in the song "I can't drive 55."

In 1987, the government raised the national rural-area speed limit to 65, but the urban-area speed limit remained 55.

In 1995, the government eliminated the national speed limit altogether, and allowed states to set their own limits.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Targa250R &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">55mph used to be the national maximum speed limit in the United States. This was originally introduced during the oil crisis in 1974 in an effort to reduce the country's fuel consumption, and was what Sammy Hagar was bitching about in the song "I can't drive 55."

In 1987, the government raised the national rural-area speed limit to 65, but the urban-area speed limit remained 55.

In 1995, the government eliminated the national speed limit altogether, and allowed states to set their own limits.</TD></TR></TABLE>

nice work man!

 

isnt 55 mph about the right speed at which to get optimal gas mileage out of your engine? i know alot of factors affect this, but i thought that the average engine (average RPMs) burned gas most effeciently at 55 mph.

.02

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ecovillain &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">isnt 55 mph about the right speed at which to get optimal gas mileage out of your engine? i know alot of factors affect this, but i thought that the average engine (average RPMs) burned gas most effeciently at 55 mph. </TD></TR></TABLE>
You answered your own question.

I'd actually venture to say that speed is almost irrelevent in determining fuel consumption, especially if you don't take gearing into account. There are many more factors that can affect it.

Most engines have a "sweet spot" in their RPM range where fuel consumption is low and remains pretty consistant. Stay in the sweet spot, and you'll see little variance in fuel consumption. Once you get above the sweet spot, you'll see a big hit in mileage.

I understand what you were getting at about "average engine/RPM," but honestly, what is "average?" It's hard to define. A lot of manufacturers these days are moving away from 4-speed automatic transmissions and toward 5-speed automatics, using light oils such as 0W-20 and 5W-20, and using tires with low rolling resistance all in an effort to up their average fleet mileage. Even Civics can show a large variance - you have the Civic Si with its short-geared transmission doing ~30mpg, and the Civic HX with its looooooooong gears doing ~45mpg.

Overall, I wouldn't necessarily say that 55mph is the "right" speed; however, you can definitely say that 55mph will consume less fuel in general than 65mph or faster speeds

 

Yeah, i would say as follows: the faster you cruise the worse your fuel economy will become. I'm not sure what the civic and crx Cd (drag coefficient) is, but i'm sure you'll get better mileage at 60 than 80. I think corvettes get such good Hwy. mileage becuase they got a ridiculous (around .29) Cd, and their longer gears.
By the way my combined hwy./city mileage is around 320mi. per tank.