I'm sorry if this has ben covered before, I have searched the forum and it was fruitless.

The Panda's redline is marked from 6500rpm. With 2000km on the odo, on a long highway trip, I thought it was about time to give it a few revs beyond 4500rpm.

The soft limiter seemed to kick in at 5500rpm in first gear, at 6000rpm the hard limiter. In second gear I think the soft 5500rpm limiter kicked in, not sure. But the hard 6000rpm limiter definitely. It was like the brakes had been applied.

Is it possible that the TA shares the 1.2's tachometer - and therefore the 1.2 reaches 6500rpm, but the TA clearly does not?

Also, like everyone else I can't get anywhere near claimed consumption figures... at a steady 110km/h I got a 5.8L/100km average over 300km.

AusPanda said:

at a steady 110km/h I got a 5.8L/100km average over 300km.

Click to expand...

That equates to around 48mpg at 70mph, so about what most other folks are getting.

You will likely see much better figures if you do the same journey at 80km/h.

FWIW, cruising at 50mph (80km/h) in our Mk3 1.2 Panda generally sees fuel figures of around 70mpg (4.0L/100km)

Buying a TA won't save you any fuel over buying a 1.2 (but it's much more fun).

As I remarked in another thread, I think the rev limiter is somewhat variable; I'm experimenting with opening the throttle at different rates, from opening it fully after each gearchange to keeping it just ahead of the engine's rpm and it seems to me that the limiter is a little less draconian if you open the throttle progressively. I'd be interested in other opinions.

AusPanda said:

I'm sorry if this has ben covered before, I have searched the forum and it was fruitless.

The Panda's redline is marked from 6500rpm. With 2000km on the odo, on a long highway trip, I thought it was about time to give it a few revs beyond 4500rpm.

The soft limiter seemed to kick in at 5500rpm in first gear, at 6000rpm the hard limiter. In second gear I think the soft 5500rpm limiter kicked in, not sure. But the hard 6000rpm limiter definitely. It was like the brakes had been applied.

Is it possible that the TA shares the 1.2's tachometer - and therefore the 1.2 reaches 6500rpm, but the TA clearly does not?

Also, like everyone else I can't get anywhere near claimed consumption figures... at a steady 110km/h I got a 5.8L/100km average over 300km.

Click to expand...

Your car's still low kilometrage- I reckon the TA needs at least 8000km
to fully run-in! My fuel economy improved about 5% after I had the 1st
oil & filter change done at about 16000km.

My Trekking's now done nearly 25000km and is averaging 5L/100km
which I think is very satisfactory I rarely venture above 3000rpm,
but it's great to have such a wide rev. range to play with :devil:



Chris

I'm not too worried about fuel economy, it's just that it achieved something like 5.2L/100km when I picked it up new and drove it the 800 km home. I think I must've been driving slower.

On the recent trip I noticed when I changed to the instant fuel economy readout that it was doing about 4.5L/100km on the flats on a steady throttle. Just the slightest change in throttle pressure would send the reading skyrocketing.

Thanks for sharing ~!

AusPanda said:

I'm not too worried about fuel economy, it's just that it achieved something like 5.2L/100km when I picked it up new and drove it the 800 km home. I think I must've been driving slower.

On the recent trip I noticed when I changed to the instant fuel economy readout that it was doing about 4.5L/100km on the flats on a steady throttle. Just the slightest change in throttle pressure would send the reading skyrocketing.

Click to expand...

As you can see we have two TwinAir cars.

The issue about fuel consumption of this engine has been well documented and you have hit the nail on the head.

Drive economically as if your life depended on it and pretty decent figures can be achieved.

Sneeze, or flex the big toe of your right foot, and it all goes to pot.

Frankly we're not that fussed what figures we get, within reason.

It's such a fun engine.

Moultoneer said:

Your car's still low kilometrage- I reckon the TA needs at least 8000km
to fully run-in! My fuel economy improved about 5% after I had the 1st
oil & filter change done at about 16000km.

My Trekking's now done nearly 25000km and is averaging 5L/100km
which I think is very satisfactory I rarely venture above 3000rpm,
but it's great to have such a wide rev. range to play with :devil:



Chris

Click to expand...

Yes, I've noticed a marked improvement in ave mpg since oil change and I've now done 9000 miles. When it was new ave was about 37, now its abt 45 - which coincidentally is the same as the alfa GT jtd.....

So, my TA is now decently run in (3500 miles), and having spent the last few weeks driving like a nun, trying to hit 50 mpg (I got to 49.4 on the last tankful, but it was sooooo boring), this week I've been experimenting with the rev limiter.

The tacho is red-lined at 6500 rpm, but I can't get the wretched thing to rev above 6000 rpm in any gear.

Is this normal?

gar074 said:

So, my TA is now decently run in (3500 miles), and having spent the last few weeks driving like a nun, trying to hit 50 mpg (I got to 49.4 on the last tankful, but it was sooooo boring), this week I've been experimenting with the rev limiter.

The tacho is red-lined at 6500 rpm, but I can't get the wretched thing to rev above 6000 rpm in any gear.

Is this normal?

Click to expand...

Yes - rev limiter kicks in at about 6000 rpm - I'm pretty sure that it spoils the fun slightly higher when you feed the accelerator slightly rather than flooring it.

Thanks for the confirmation.

Boooo !!! It feels like it has loads more to give. Will try your softly-softly-catchee-monkey approach tomorrow. I reckon I'll be lucky to see 30mpg on this week's tankful.

Fond memories of my 2CV, which would just keep on revving, especially on long downhill stretches, and was unburstable.

By the way - takes at least 5000 miles to free up.

triumph7 said:

Yes, I've noticed a marked improvement in ave mpg since oil change and I've now done 9000 miles. When it was new ave was about 37, now its abt 45 - which coincidentally is the same as the alfa GT jtd.....

Click to expand...

Yep, consumption seems to have settled on around 45 here too. Just same as the GT

Revved my bad boy up to 6500 rpm today and the twinair engine almost totally died a death and dropped down to 2000 rpm - sounded good though!

Hmmm - so you were able to get it to rev past 6k? Maybe there's an Anti-Eco button that I haven't found yet!

Rev cut-out is different in higher gears. Can't remember if second goes to 6k, but third will wind out to 6500rpm.

Mine won't - and trust me, I've tried

Per the rest of the observations here - driven very carefully, you can get good mpg, but driven without focussing on that you'll get pretty much what you would in any small-ish petrol car. There is a given amount of energy needed to accelerate at a particular rate, the rest is down to how efficiently the engine can convert that energy and how it can minimise losses. The TwinAir engine can help with the second but, but your toe dictates the first bit! :0)

I agree the limiter can easily be hit in 1st/2nd when pulling away with a bit of gusto! I wondered if it was just that the Rev counter wasn't keeping up?! It's probably just an ecu thing to prevent over-revving and liberating those two little cylinders from their block! :0P

Twins of all varieties are all about mid-range in my view and I find the TwinAir gives it's best between about 2.5k-5k, after which it starts to turn from 'braaaaaap'-ey to thrashey! Let's all convince ourselves that, as it's Italian, it's the 4-wheeled equivalent of a Ducati, eh?! ;0)

Hahaha....

PS - in a low-first-geared 4x4, setting off with a heavy foot is certainly good practice for your quick-shifting, isn't it?! :0)

You barely catch your breath before 3rd gear!

I believe that you can go on MultiECUscan and adjust the rev counter limit ???