In motorsport BHP is King and vehicle weight is the minimum achievable in consequence with handling.

However, shedding serious lbs off of a D2 is very, very difficult and improving the engine efficiency of an ancient inefficient V8 is near impossible with modern emissions laws, but IMHO it's the only way to improve gas mpg without understanding that the aerodynamics of the D2 is terrible and the drivetrain frictional losses are horrendous so the possibilities are very restricted, near impossible, for achieving gas efficiencies. There are many tiny ways to improve overall gas efficiency, it would take an age to implement them, but in costs vs savings it's hardly worth the effort.

 

 

^^^^^^
Possibly, but the "back in the day" reference...immediately made me think he was talking about "my" back in the day. LR3 timeframe is yesterday afternoon to me...lol.

Anyhow, I believe OffroadFrance pretty much summed it up. You'll only be able to gain a small amount of mileage...no matter what you do. So, keep your tire pressure correct, drive like a grandma (apologies to any grandma's that tear it up), keep the engine running correctly and buy good fuel.

Brian.

 

curious...I "think" I get better gas mileage in sports mode. Anyone else?

 

My mistake guys. Not an AC compressor that runs full time; just one that induces some drag full time where as modern compressors create virtually no drag when they're off.

Unless that's wrong, too, but that's what I've been told in the past.

 

The only time I ever got under 10mpg was also the only tank that I "grannied" it around, keeping her under 2500rpm even under acceleration. That's when I was fairly consistently getting 13mph driving like a bat outta hell

 

X1 ....... I run a D2 TD5 and often run in sport mode and I honestly believe it makes little or no difference to MPG's but in fact it's maybe slightly better if anything.