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What rpm

10K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  whaap 
#1 ·
Hello friends,
I am no car geek, but love my Mini 2003. I was always confused about what people say about optimal driving. The mini cooper 1st gen. in general have a best performance at 2950 revs. The question is should I drive at this engine rpm (irrespective of the gear) to get best mileage. Also should I accelerate gradually to this rpm or quickly reach this rpm and run study.:confused: My daily run is 30 miles one way, dual carriage for 12 miles @ 60 mph , 12 miles @50mph single lane A road, 2 to 4 miles @ 30mph at junctions rest start stop.
 
#2 ·
Just drive. If you could maintain 2950 in all gears you would have so many speeding tickets you could own a Bentley. You can feel the car where it wants you to shift. The quicker you shift up thru gears the better mileage. You can skip gears also. The less time in 1st or 2nd, the better mileage. There is a shift light you can buy and install and set where you want to shift.
 
#3 ·
The mini cooper 1st gen. in general have a best performance at 2950 revs.
I don't know where you got that idea from, but there is no particular truth in it. In general, the best fuel economy will be achieved using the highest gear that the engine can pull satisfactorily at that particular road speed. If the engine won't respond to the throttle, that's too high a gear (sometimes called 'lugging').

Contrary to what 99% of drivers think, gentle acceleration is not a fuel saver - there's no need to use huge amount of revs, but don't be afraid to use full throttle. But don't accelerate unless you can see that you can maintain the higher speed - it is braking that is throwing money away, so concentrate on anticipating the road ahead (and on not slowing down for corners!).

Incidentally, for the many who will want to say that full throttle is very wasteful of fuel, it is - but then you only need to use it for a short time. Long periods of trying to accelerate with light throttle actually uses more fuel than a short burst of efficient acceleration. Suitably, it was BMW who demonstrated this, decades ago.
 
#4 ·
Got the jist of it, thanks Anjib. For some more clarification can you tell me the range of rpm for gear shift and the most fuel efficient speed in each of the 5 gears. Though I am a pain to other drivers in the firstlane of the motorway, driving at 63 mph in top gear (5), I stick to my guns. Occasionally reaching 70mph to overtake. Better safe and fuel efficient driving. Hope i am doing something right.

On a flat road, when driving at 2950 rpm, I am at 63 mph in 5th gear. Can I assume this is the optimum fuel efficient speed for driving this mini?
 
#5 ·
Perhaps I should be more explicit - whoever told you 2950rpm was a magic number was pulling the wool over your eyes (that's the nice explanation), or dumb. You may catch them laughing at you.

The most fuel efficient speed is always the slowest one - 60 is better than 70, but 50 is better than 60 and 40 better still. I think somewhere around 30mph you might hit the minimum, because the car would no longer pull top gear.

There is no 'sweet spot' at which fuel efficiency is highest so you need to make your own mind up about where on the scale of wasting your life .v. polluting you want to be.

But, most of all, forget all that 2950rpm nonsense.
 
#6 ·
I assume you have a standard Mini. About 2 years ago, I bought a used '05 standard Mini stick shift. It was geared so low that the RPM was almost always around 3000. The noise drove me nuts, but I did like the Mini so well that last year I bought a new '13 Mini S. More power (turbo) allowed the vehicle to run closer to 2000 RPM at roughly the same speeds that the '05 did. As with other replies, I agree that 2950rpm is nonsense, but if you do have a standard (base model), that's what you will run mostly.
 
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