How good are turbo minis as daily drivers on fuel?
Turbo Mini Forums

Thanks everyone for your input. I have made my decision.

I'm not trying to achive an economy car, if I wanted that I'd buy an old oil burner and run about in that. I desire a fast car that is good on fuel, so evidently a compromise is needed as they don't really exist unless you spend a lot of money on a new modern car.

the aim is to achieve mini that can cover in excess of 10'000 miles a year, go like fuck on the odd occasion I bury my foot, but return 45 mpg during normal driving conditions.

The reason I posted this thread is that if there was nothing between in the economy between a normal turbo mini and a engine converted car then clearly it would be a lot of work for the sake of a 35hp

This will be a long term project anyway, the crx will be going and be replaced with a 306 estate with a tow bar so I can tow the mini to events this year.

i very much doubt a v tec would reach 45mpg either, a mate of mines got a civic with b16 DOHC and his is really bad on fuel, but it is in a heavier car? i would say i get about 30mpg from my turbo, at 10psi.

Audi s4 b5 - 470bhp & 486ft lbs

On 30th Apr, 2012 Brett said:
yeah stick the bit in and give it a wobble

My current car has a b16 and that averages 35mpg having covered 140k. The mini would be about 250kg lighter too.

I, like a couple of the others on this thread think that getting over 30mpg in a turbo motor is pretty damn good.
infact i wish my daily got this

All I knows is the van is crap on fuel! lol

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

The key to getting good MPG on a turbo mini (or any car for that matter) is a good setup, AFR and timing,

with the SU AFR can be a compromise between part throttle and full boost, if you tune the carb to be right at 20psi with the throttle wide open it may be impossible to get it lean enough at cruise to give optimum fuel economy,
Like wise with a dizzy,

I was running approx 14.5-1 AFR in mine and getting better then 40mpg, according to a lot of doucumantation max fuel economy should be about 15.8-1 so I still had room for improvement, there was possibly room for more ignition advance too, cruise was about 38deg at 65-70 mph (4000rpm a @ 80kpa MAP)