98.9 MPG from our CVT Rally Car!!

[Ccaptain24]

Hi,

Great article.

I don't have MIMA (yet). Might yet need a new battery first.

With the standard set up accelerating in drive causes the CVT to lower the ratio unless you are very gentle (and drop out of lean burn if you are heavy footed). I have found that at high speed the CVT can't lower the ratio much so bungs in lots of electricity, a bit like flooring the accelerator in a high gear at low revs in a manual car. I surmise from your replies and my own experience that MIMA allows the driver to apply the electric power without moving the throttle so in "Drive" the CVT will stay in the highest possible ratio. This may explain why CVT cars generaly don't do as good mpg as manuals. A potential 15% improvement seems a very good incentive for fitting MIMA.

From the articles it sounds as though you keep it in Drive. Apart from the obvious higher revs at low speed, have you made any performance comparisons between Drive and Sport modes?

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

Another thought that I have been entertaining is to develop a MCVT, or a manual overide to the CVT ratio.
A simple switchover switch and adjustment pot on the dash would allow manual setting of any CVT ratio.

[Paul Andrews]

Hi Ccaptain,

We did some performance data logging of sport vs drive and found a definite advantage in acceleration using sport. We always use sport on rallies if we remember to select it at the start of the stage. If your batteries are still ok you may find that MIMA will rejuvenate them. This certainly happened with our car. Apparently working the batteries very hard can change the structure of their crystals allowing them more contact surface area and more efficiency. Or so a boffin told me. Our 8 year old batteries are much better now than when we first rallied the car.

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

More interesting feedback on the batterys and heavy use. I am still running on my 8 year old batteries, and am nearing 150K, during all that time I have never had a recalibration. The pack still runs from top to bottom, and seems to have the same capacity as when they were new.Further evidence that the cells and pack balance respond well to heavy use, once the pack is in balance.