P38A Collected RRC, biggest surprise was how good P38 is!!

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rangie1998

rangie1998

Active Member
Posts
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Location
Leeds
Posted on here few days back that I had a 400 mile round trip to collect a RRC and would be using my dads '98 P38 4.0 V8 with car trailer to collect it.
Asked for approx mpg figures for towing, obviously varies depending on how you drive etc but anything from 9 was quoted!
Well, I've collected the classic and will post more about that later, but the P38 performed fantastically!! As it's my dads car I don't drive it that much and rarely for towing. 200 miles with car trailer mostly motorway and between 50 and 60 mph computer showed average mpg 22!!! 200 miles back with classic on trailer and final average mpg was 18.7 and it towed it with ease, was an absolute pleasure to drive. Checked mpg figures against fuel fill ups and pretty much spot on. Makes me wonder why you'd bother with a diesel!
 
rangie1998 said:
Posted on here few days back that I had a 400 mile round trip to collect a RRC and would be using my dads '98 P38 4.0 V8 with car trailer to collect it.
Asked for approx mpg figures for towing, obviously varies depending on how you drive etc but anything from 9 was quoted!
Well, I've collected the classic and will post more about that later, but the P38 performed fantastically!! As it's my dads car I don't drive it that much and rarely for towing. 200 miles with car trailer mostly motorway and between 50 and 60 mph computer showed average mpg 22!!! 200 miles back with classic on trailer and final average mpg was 18.7 and it towed it with ease, was an absolute pleasure to drive. Checked mpg figures against fuel fill ups and pretty much spot on. Makes me wonder why you'd bother with a diesel!
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Because with the diesel you would get around 28 to 30 mpg doing a similar run.
 
wammers said:
Because with the diesel you would get around 28 to 30 mpg doing a similar run.
Click to expand...
I would have thought with a P38 diesel you'd need your foot to the floor to get anywhere towing nearly 3 tonnes? killing any hope of decent mpg, with a V8 you only have to tickle the accelerator :D
 
rangie1998 said:
I would have thought with a P38 diesel you'd need your foot to the floor to get anywhere towing nearly 3 tonnes? killing any hope of decent mpg, with a V8 you only have to tickle the accelerator :D
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Nope you are suffering under a misapprehension. :p:D
 
This post fills me joy, V8 joy......twins are delightfu l(twin banks, before you pedants chime in, and the ref to having fun with real human female twins is purely a fetish.)

;);););););););););););););););););););););););)
 
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I seem to recall a 0-60mph for the TD6 was well north of 16 seconds, that's with 500 more cc and more flab probably than the the 38.

What's the book figures for the DSE P38?

Will I lol?
Ps. is everyone forgetting the cost P/L between fuels?
Do DERV users partake of the RED?
 
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rangie1998 said:
There was me thinking the diesel was underpowered....can't think why I thought that...wait I've remembered it was from the many 'P38 buying guide' posts I've read on here!! :D:D
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Just depends what you want. A chipped diesel of 1500 cc less capacity than the petrol, has slightly less BHP than the 4.0 litre petrol engine but the same torque, which starts lower down the rev range, so is better at pulling. Uses less fuel than the petrol in all conditions. And is a far more reliable engine. So for towing the diesel is a better all round car. A chipped diesel will not be too far behind a 4.0 litre petrol on acceleration either. If you go in for traffic light drag racing that is. ;)
 
myfirstl322 said:
I seem to recall a 0-60mph for the TD6 was well north of 16 seconds, that's with 500 more cc and more flab probably than the the 38.

What's the book figures for the DSE P38?

Will I lol?
Ps. is everyone forgetting the cost P/L between fuels?
Do DERV users partake of the RED?
Click to expand...

0-60 for a Fiat 500 is better than the 4.0 litre petrol or the diesel but can't see it would tow as well as the petrol or the diesel. TD6 0-60 is around 12.7 seconds. Chipped P38 diesel will be similar. 4.0 petrol 11.6. So contrary to popular belief not a lot in it.
 
To get it to shift you need the turbo spinning on the diesel so heavier foot but avoid overfuelling. The manual pulls a bit quicker more in my opinion.

Reliability was the reason for going with the BMW unit, although I've had my gripes. That and I was planning on making my own biodiesel before the council mopped up all the old chip-shop oil in the area.
 
wammers said:
And some bad news for the lad who towed with the 4.0 P38 and got 18.7 MPH overall. The fuel computer is broken. :D:D
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Disagree, My fuel computer is spot on and I get 22mpg on a run solo. The weight makes little difference in light traffic and non hilly routes and a classic on a low trailer wouldn't have such a massive impact as a caravan so I think 18.7 is do-able.
I expect when I bring back my caravan, i'll see somewhere between 12 and 15 as it presents a much bigger sail area than his car trailer.
He also said he'd worked it out manually and the figures tallied.
 
Wazzajnr said:
Disagree, My fuel computer is spot on and I get 22mpg on a run solo. The weight makes little difference in light traffic and non hilly routes and a classic on a low trailer wouldn't have such a massive impact as a caravan so I think 18.7 is do-able.
I expect when I bring back my caravan, i'll see somewhere between 12 and 15 as it presents a much bigger sail area than his car trailer.
He also said he'd worked it out manually and the figures tallied.
Click to expand...

Oh ok carry on then. Good to know that a 4.0 litre petrol does only 1.4 MPG less towing a heavy trailer 200 miles one way. Then an heavy trailer 200 miles back with 2.4 or so tons on it, to give an overall consumption of only 4.7 MPG less than Land rover claim a new one was capable of extra urban not towing anything. Truly remarkable. Claimed consumption figures for a new vehicle. Urban 12.9. Extra urban 23.4. Combined 15.6. Which are usually a bit exaggerated.
 
wammers said:
Oh ok carry on then. Good to know that a 4.0 litre petrol does only 1.4 MPG less towing a heavy trailer 200 miles one way. Then an heavy trailer 200 miles back with 2.4 or so tons on it, to give an overall consumption of only 4.7 MPG less than Land rover claim a new one was capable of extra urban not towing anything. Truly remarkable. Claimed consumption figures for a new vehicle. Urban 12.9. Extra urban 23.4. Combined 15.6. Which are usually a bit exaggerated.
Click to expand...
As I said, weight makes very little difference. My figures are worked out over about 6000 miles driving around Europe (to Czech and back mainly) so I know that the computer is pretty close. And whether I'm on my own with an empty case or 3 adults, 1 child and a boot full to bursting it makes zero difference.
As I said, it's the wind resistance that makes the difference and towing an empty trailer that would be next to none, towing one with a classic on wouldn't be as bad as a caravan.
Believe what you want, I'm not making it up.
 
Wazzajnr said:
As I said, weight makes very little difference. My figures are worked out over about 6000 miles driving around Europe (to Czech and back mainly) so I know that the computer is pretty close. And whether I'm on my own with an empty case or 3 adults, 1 child and a boot full to bursting it makes zero difference.
As I said, it's the wind resistance that makes the difference and towing an empty trailer that would be next to none, towing one with a classic on wouldn't be as bad as a caravan.
Believe what you want, I'm not making it up.
Click to expand...

Tell that to a haulage company. Are you seriously saying that a fully loaded vehicle uses the same amount of fuel as an unloaded one. That is basically like saying a vehicle uses the same amount of fuel going up an hill as it does coasting down one. Not possible.
 
wammers said:
Tell that to a haulage company. Are you seriously saying that a fully loaded vehicle uses the same amount of fuel as an unloaded one. That is basically like saying a vehicle uses the same amount of fuel going up an hill as it does coasting down one. Not possible.
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No, what I'm saying is that the weight makes very little difference. UNLESS, as I've stated before it's hilly terrain. Or twisty roads.
Of course it takes more uphill.
I'll put money on it that the fuel economy of a 40ft curtainsider is less than 10% different between fully loaded and empty, but if you had a trailer full of bricks instead of a big trailer sticking above the cab, it would make even less difference.
UNLESS, I repeat, it's going up and down a lot of hills.
The amount of energy required to keep a mass moving along the road is tiny.

For example, on my ampera, at 80mph on a flat road with little wind, it needs about 20kw. If I open the windows it goes up to 25kw.
If I fully load it it makes so little difference it's almost impossible to see.
However, when I get to a hill, fully loaded it will go up to 60kw,empty it will be 40 on the same hill
 
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