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MG MGA - Gas mileage

Anyone have an input as to the gas mileage they're getting with their "A"? It's been many years since I kept track of mine and I don't drive it that much now to check it.
Joe Wiley

Tt really depends on your setup and tuning. My car has a 5-main 1800 engine with 3.9 rear end and it gets approximately 29mpg straight interstate driving, around 23 for city or country road driving. Conversely I have a Magnette with a 3-main 1800 and a weber carb that gets only 21mpg interstate. I know my dad's stock 1600 gets about 24mpg highway pulling a small trailer (total of about 150lbs with luggage).
Mark J Michalak

I am going to be controversial here and suggest that a lot of drivers hype up their mpg. Mark is about spot on with his figures compared to mine and I have an identical set up. I keep very accurate figures and over the last 2years and 3 months I have averaged 22.79mpg (British Imperial Gallons). This varies from mid winter series of short journies of 3.5 miles commutes to work(15.94mpg - worst case, normally about 20 to 21) to 31.41mpg on 150 mile round trips.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Mine is a 1600 with a 45 dcoe weber and a 3.9 diff. I get 35 MPG on a high speed cruising (75MPH) and about 25 plus on normal motoring around town.
Bob (robert) Midget Turbo

1958 with stock 1500, SU's and distributor - around 23-24 MPG
Bill Haglan

My 1956 1500 is stock. SU's, points, 4.3 rear end, no porting, etc... I get about 26 mpg (US) on mixed country road driving. I have gotten as high as 27-28 on the highway at 70MPH with a luggage rack loaded and a passenger. Probably could do a bit better without the luggage and if I kept it to around 60MPH, but never tried.

Chuck
C Schaefer

I guess I should have been more specific. I have always been a purist so I don't have a souped up Cadillac V8 engine with four barrel carbs and a Ford F350 rear end. I just have a '60 A with a standard 1600 engine with SU carbs. Everything is tuned correctly as well. I've owned and driven TDs, TCs, TFs and MGAs since 1957. As one gets older we forget what kind of mileage we get until something like this latest gas price crunch hits. I guess I'll start keeping track from here on even though I don't drive it much these days.
Joe Wiley

On a gas mileage gimmick Rallye I was able to get 31.5 MPG with lots of extraordinary effort (coasting down hill etc) Normally though 22+-
David Holmes

I have driven my 59 / 1500 for about 1500 miles this summer. My first couple of tanks I was getting around 25 mpg. Then for some reason it dropped to 20 mpg. I assumed it was because I was getting more confident with the car and pushing it harder, plus the weather has been much warmer.

I recently installed a Petronix ignition with the expectation that my mileage would get better. However, the first tank showed 18 mpg! I will continue to monitor but does this make sense?

Jeff
Jeff Bennett

Have just completed 1600 miles in my new (to Me) Mk2 1622 Coupe in the last 3 months. My average over that mileage has been 28.43 MPG (UK Gallon)this varies between 21.42 0n short runs around town to 36.68 on 250 mile motorway/tours.When purchased I found the rear Carb was running very rich have retuned and now all 4 plugs are nicely tinted beige with off white centre electrodes My engine is running a 9.5 compression ratio and a compression test shows 160- 170 on all 4 cylinders
Paul
P D Camp

I can get 35 plus if I stay under 75 on motorway, about 32 fairly fast driving around the lakes and this seems to drop to about 25 on the rare occasions I drive in traffic.

I have a 3 bearing 1800, gas flowed head, mild cam, 3.9 diff, standard carbs, ignition, exhaust and gearbox.

Just to make sure we compare apples with apples, a UK gallon is very slightly more than 1.2 US gallons. That means that reading the above, we should expect about 30mpg (more or less depending on driving conditions) in UK, which I also confirm from mine. That equates to 25 mpg US.

Just to cheer others up, petrol price in UK is over 9 US dollars per US gallon. (over 12USD for leaded!)

Jeff, spirited driving will make a big difference!
Neil McGurk

I reckon I get around 30mpg on a standard 1600 engine (with Castrol Valvemaster+ added), mostly on longer runs (25 miles +)but I haven't done an accurate check as Steve has done. With petrol around £1.20 per litre I could do with it giving nearer 40!
Cam Cunningham

If I drive gently (hardly ever) I get qbout 9L/100km consumption.

If I drive positively, I get about 12L/100km.

Now I have the 3.9 rear diff, I'm expecting an improvement.

That's with the Judson and running a tad on the rich side.
dominic clancy

Cam

If you really really want to become an anorak (old bore) like me, I have made an Excel spreadsheet into which you just have to type the mileage at fill-up, plus the litres you put in. It converts it all to gallons* and mpg (current tankload mpg and average mpg since the start of the spreadsheet). Over time it does not make much difference whether or not you fill to full each time - that just affects the mileage of the current tankload, hardly matters for the overall average mileage after a 100 gallons or so and less so thereafter.

In fact I may post the spreadsheet on my website.

*Can easily be adapted for US gallons.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Bog standard MGA1600. out of town keeping about 50 mph steady (driving with T Types) easily 36 MPG, driving with MGBs at 70 MPH expect 22 MPG imperial.
As the guage is inaccuate I make a habit of filling it full when using it so the results are fairly accuate
Martyn
Martyn Dunn

Whenever I see comments like this one:
"Just to cheer others up, petrol price in UK is over 9 US dollars per US gallon. (over 12USD for leaded!)"
It grates on me. Fuel costs no more in the UK than here in the USA. The tax you choose to pay is the difference. The cost per gallon, in self imposed general taxes, exceeds $5.00 per gallon. That money is spent on what ever services you recieve back from your government.
At .54 pence per litre plus VAT you buy big government at the pump more than you buy fuel.
These comments may offend some, if so I apologise. They are more appropriate in flame wars I assume. I intend no offence. I just think that the misleading aspect of such statements needs challenged.
R J Brown

Randy you are just as bad because you have told half a story and that grates on me and many others.
Just to clear up any misunderstanding that R.J. has caused

We pay tax directly to our government to ensure we have the best health care available to ALL. whether that family have full time employment or whether they were put out of work by cheap inports from the third world.
In the USA I believe you pay extra tax for health care but you call it INSURANCE, someone told me they have to pay 600 bucks a month to get the same care as we in Britain and most of Europe.
The difference I can see is that your system depends on someones ability to buy insurance and is a lot more expensive in real terms than ours (obviously the third party insurance company needs to make a large profit as well)
Our system just needs us to determine where to put the tax, do we put it on fuel and prevent waste by building thirsty cars or do we perhaps put it on income tax, the choice is ours.

I intend no offence. I just think that the misleading aspect of such statements needs to be challenged.
Bob (robert) Midget Turbo

Hi Bob good to see you.
My 1600 MK11 gets about 22. My 58 roadster with the ported Mazda 12a and a Delorto side draft gets 11. Thinking about pulling it for a V8 so I can improve the mileage and the exhaust note.
My post above was clear and accurate. I even looked up the tax rate to sure. These taxes are for your general fund and not for any specific purpose as implied. Simple truth is fuel is a international commodity and most price variation is government imposed.
My big 454 cubic inch boat hauler gets about the same as the little red 58.
All in good humor!
R J Brown

I checked every tank full on the 1000 mile round trip to GT-33. Stock MKII 1622 with SU's, 4.1 rear.

Best tank was an interstate 31 mpg. Worst was around Seven Springs, up and down hills and many stops at 21 mpg. I think that one major factor is gas evaporation from the float bowls when you have many stops and leave the car standing hot for awhile.

Gas prices in middle Pennsylvania were about 50 cents less per gallon cheaper (e.g 93 octane at $4.11 vs. $4.60) than here on Long Island.

- Ken
Ken Doris

Come on R.J. this is as you are fully aware not the place to try and justify your personal political view point or indeed how we in the UK choose to fund of healthcare. The good people here will get bored very quickly and frankly will not give a damn.
I promised never to return to FW but if you need to discuss this matter further then I will gladly speak to you there and totally ignore the other sick posters.
However in the meantime lets talk here solely about our beloved cars.
Bob (robert) Midget Turbo

Hi Steve, publishing your mpg spreadsheet on the website would be a great idea - also would save me the struggle composing one of my own - cheers Cam
Cam Cunningham

Sears Point is 2.52 miles long. We get 10 laps a session = 25.2 miles and we burn about 3 gallons in that time = 8.4 miles to the gallon.
k brown

"bump"
Mark J Michalak

Hi Steve - Thanks for putting the spreadsheet on your website - not quite got to grips with the starting reading yet - and I'll have to convert it to kilometres. thanks Cam
Cam Cunningham

This thread was discussed between 06/07/2008 and 30/07/2008

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