Dancing with the Devil

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fotomoto

fotomoto

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Another else like to flirt with danger? :)

In EV mode, I like to put the car in Sport and accelerate as much as I can on electrons but not enough to engage the ICE.

Skirting the "grey zone" of the devil on the power gauge, I attempt to feather the throttle as close as I can to no mans land as I watch traffic silently fade away in my mirrors. 0-40mph times are very effective in real world applications. But..... sometimes the rush of smooth torque is too seductive and I blow through the border and activate the ICE; often not noticing till I get to the next stop and finally hearing it running. If it just happened, I'll reboot and try again. If I have to wait, I'll let the ICE go thru its warmup cycle.

Originally I didn't like it (I have a C-Max that operates similarly and a Volt before that) but now it's a fun game to me and helps to tune my muscle memory sans detent. It also makes me marvel at the wonderful balance Honda engineers achieved with this car.
 
It's too bad the accelerator pedal click doesn't work in all modes. However, I still believe that I'm getting all 121 battery-powered horsepower from the electric motor when I push against the detent in ECON Mode.
 
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Very few vehicle actually change the available HP when switching between modes (Econ, Sport, etc). What changes is the throttle mapping.

I always drive the Clarity in Sport so the paddle regen settings persist. My wife has trouble with the concept that you can drive just as efficiently in Sport as Econ. Since I don't have an ICE, there is no detent :D
 
insightman said:
It's too bad the accelerator pedal click doesn't work in all modes. However, I still believe that I'm getting all 121 battery-powered horsepower from the electric motor when I push against the detent in ECON Mode.
Click to expand...

My understanding of the difference is the distance the pedal travels for acceleration. You have to push less in Sport than Econ. Once in a while I forget to put ours in Sport and when I change it, especially while accelerating, there is a notable "surge" in power. Not burning rubber off the tires difference, but it's there.
 
A note about the detente. The other day I got on the freeway behind a car going 60 in a 65. I checked the lanes behind me and only saw one car. One of those Alfa Romeos with the ugly nose in the left lane. I pulled into the center lane, glanced in the rear view, and here is that car coming into the center lane fast as hell. So I floored it.

I'll estimate 2 seconds and I looked down to see 81 mph on the speedometer and I was keeping up with the Alfa Romeo. It honestly feaked me out a bit. I did not expect that.

As it turned out they were headed to the right lane to exit. And the engine ran for a while. No Angry Bees though.
 
The Clarity's 0-60 time is ok,. but it's 30 to 60 time is much better! (or 60 to 80!)

The last time I owned a car with any degree of "balls" was a very long time ago! (1969 Cadillac I had through the latter half of the 1980's into 1990s. and that had the very very big block V* kind of balls!)
Coming from a long line of small 4 cylinders in the meantime (1983 honda civic hatchback, Saabs, Corolla, Tacoma 4cyl 5 speed, Prius) the Calrity really ROCKS!
 
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