July, 2009
June started off with a great picnic at Tanglewood and we also
held our monthly club meeting. At the meeting I informed the club of the resignation of
our secretary Jean Stewart, due to health problems. Roy Kampen stepped forward to assume
the duties.
On June 24th Mayberry invited us to their annual Cruise
In. We had five couples that participated and we had a blast. We also dodged the
rain.
On June 28th the 17th Annual Car Show at
Bill Black’s was a huge success. We had a lot of compliments on the hospitality and
friendliness of our club. We had great participation of 43 cars, awarded 17 door prizes
and a 50/50 cash award was won by our very own Rick Sydell. I wish to thank all of those
who furnished the door prizes and those who volunteered their time and effort to make the
show a success. I also want to thank Bill Black and Jerry McPherson because without their
support and help the show would not have been possible.
Please remember our next event will be the 4th of July
Parade in Greensboro. We will meet at 8:15am at the old NASCAR Café at Four Season’s
Mall parking lot. The Parade begins at 9:30am in downtown Greensboro. The parade officials
said “Please do not throw candy”.
At our monthly meeting July 11th be thinking or
planning a club activity for later in the month.
Articles for next month’s newsletter should be submitted by July 22.
Donation Update
By Dick Lawrence
Zip Products has a Corvette club support program which responded
to my request for a donation for our Corvette car show.
They sent Clubvette a premium Zip detail kit valued at $90.00 plus
a detail carry bag to hold the many car products.
I
urge our members to reciprocate to Zip Products for your next corvette parts and supplies
plus thank them for their support. Call your
orders toll free 1-800-962-9632 or order on line at www.zip-corvette.com
Corvette
Fuel Economy
Submitted by Paul Recio
Those
who look at the Corvette and see a gas guzzling V8 sports car are usually unaware that the
sport car's EPA highway mileage rating is 26. Corvette owners who regularly drive their
cars know this number to be on the low side. So Popular Mechanics recently got behind the
wheel of a new C6 to test what they call Corvettes "most amazing talent...its
astonishing fuel economy".
Popular Mechanics chose a route from a gas station in Santa Barbara, California north
along US Route 101 to Santa Maria and then back, a round trip of about 140 miles. The
Corvette was a C6 model equipped with a standard six-speed manual transmission. PM drove
the Corvette on the freeway at 55 mph, 10 mph below the posted speed limit, using cruise
control with the windows up, air conditioning off and vents open. The 18-gallon tank was
filled with 91 octane gas.
At 55 mph, the Corvette's tach showed a steady 1300 rpms, barely off-idle, but producing
enough torque to maintain a constant speed on even some of the longer grades. According to
the on-board computer, PM averaged 30.5 mpg with and average speed of 52.8 mph over the
142.8 miles. But it only took 4.358 gallons to refill the Corvette's gas tank. That works
out to 32.8 mpg!
So how does a sports car with a 6.2 liter 436 horsepower V8 get this kind of fuel economy?
Popular Mechanics says the secret is the sixth gear in the transmission, which is an
aggressive 0.50:1 overdrive that when combined with the 3.42:1 final drive ratio allows
the engine to turn slowly at modest cruising speeds.
The availability of the low-end torque provided by the LS3 engine means that it doesn't
have to spin to high revs to make sure there is enough ft-lbs of torque on tap. Popular
Mechanics compares this feat to the Ferrari F430 (EPA highway rating is 16 mpg) which
believes the Italian sports car could not make the same trip without at least one
downshift.
The thought of driving the Corvette at 10 mph under the posted speed limit sounds pretty
boring though and the writers from Popular Mechanics said the same. Any vehicle driven
conservatively will get better fuel economy than one driven hard and fast. That being
said, Popular Mechanics sums up its fuel efficiency test by saying the Corvette's “parsimonious
performance likely can't be duplicated by any other car with anywhere near the
performance.”
Lastly, for you detractors out there that only see Corvette owners as out of touch with
the environmental movement or being less green than say a hybrid owner, I urge you to
visit the story at Popular Mechanics and read the comments coming from Corvette owners who
share their real life stories of the Corvette's most amazing talent - it's astonishing
fuel economy.
To All Clubvette members and family members:
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Protection
Systems is owned by Clubvette member Mel Lohr
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