I think Klebert's advice is right on the money. Drive what you love to drive. My only concern about driving an Imperial is parts sources. Sure, we can find parts out there, but a lot of the replacement parts are lower quality Chinese made stuff. This is not so much an Imperial or Mopar problem, as it is hobby wide. The reliability of our cars is as good as the pool of replacement parts out there.
As far as getting better economy, the fact of the matter is that you have roughly 5000 pounds of car. So it's going to take a set amount of force to move that mass. Whether it's shaped like a brick or a sleek rocket, it's going to require the same amount of force to get it going a set rate. This is why SUV's get no better fuel economy than our golden oldies.
(Sure they have fuel injection and lighter cheesy plastic all over the place, but they
still tip the scales at 4000 to 6000 lbs.)
Chris Middlebrook
1962 Custom Southampton
--- On Sun 10/08, Klebert L. Hall < swampyankee@xxxxxxx > wrote:
From: Klebert L. Hall [mailto: swampyankee@xxxxxxx]
To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sun, 8 Oct 2006 07:48:07 -0400
Subject: Re: IML: Ways to improve mileage?
> From: Matthew Gill
> Subject: IML: Ways to improve milage?
>
> Hey all,
>
> Matt here again, and still somewhat considering an attempt at an
> Imperial as a daily driver (64-66).. I've mostly decided that i need
> something with better milage, but what kinds of ways are there to
> improve gas milage? What kinds of upgrades should I be looking at?
> I'm trying to add the cost of the car, and upgrades to decide whether
>
or not it's worth-while. It's my last hope for going that direction.
>
> Thanks
I don't want to discourage you from getting an Imperial as a driver,
but your best way to get improved mileage is likely to be careful driving
and keeping it in good tune. A low-resistance air cleaner, dual exhausts,
and an electronc ignition would likely help a little, but we're only talking
a mile or two per gallon here, best-case. If you ever managed to average
15mpg in an Imperial, I'd say you had it about maxed out.
On the other hand; mileage, schmileage. I drive a '69 every day as my
only car, and if I'm not well within the bottom 10% of the list, income
wise, then I feel sorry for the rest of the IML... I drive about 300 miles
a week on average, and at current prices that costs me about $50. When gas
was over a dollar more per gallon this summer, it cost me about $75 - we all
bitch about gas prices, but they really don't
affect most of us that much.
If I were driving a Prius, which gets about triple my mileage (there's just
about nothing that does better than triple), I would have still been paying
twenty-something bucks a week in gas, so we're only talking about a
difference of maybe $50/week at an extreme. Not having to drive an econobox
is easily worth that to me, and I can skip eating out once a week to manage
it. The difference is even smaller when you look at the other sorts of cars
you might actually buy - in a slant-6 Dart (nice cars too, but no Imperial),
you'll be able to average maybe 18mpg - that's only a 50% improvement over
an Imperial, so we're talking maybe 15 - 20 bucks a week at ordinary yearly
travel rates. I'd suggest you just get the car you want, it'll likely be
worth the extra gas money.
Now, if you drive 800 miles/week like my wife, the Imperial's mileage
might be more of an issue...
-Kle.
'69 Crown 4DHT
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