[Angib]

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.

 

[Angib]

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.