Top 10 Fuel-Efficiency Surprises

 

The lithely penned Audi TT is a slinky sports coupe that beat out the none-too-shabby Nissan 350Z and Ford Shelby GT in a recent comparison test. Both of those cars harvest horsepower from displacement (the Shelby’s engine is more than two-and-a-half times larger than the TT’s), whereas the Audi gets it from as much turbocharged boost as the laws of thermodynamics will allow from its 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine.

 

Two hundred horsepower and 207 pound-feet of torque, yours at just 1800 rpm, are pressed into service by the excellent dual-clutch automated manual Direct Shift Gearbox. The same competitors trounced in that comparison test get socked again by the TT’s 31 mpg highway rating; the 350Z and the Shelby GT get just 24 and 23 mpg, respectively.

 

Despite sharing a basic design with the Volkswagen Rabbit, the TT is some 200 pounds lighter, thanks to an aluminum, rather than steel, structure. Weight-saving measures and a quick-shifting transmission collaborate to produce a respectable 6.0-second 0-to-60 time, despite a modest power level.

 

Beyond dynamic talent, the TT offers what most others without four interlocking rings in the grille can’t: an excellent interior and tactile experience that feel designed by those fluent in the finer things, adroitly translated into a vehicle priced on a par with cars whose interiors are more on the Lego end of the plastics experience.

 

 

Zip it. Before you get your hemp panties in a cinch, reread the title of this article. The Corvette’s 26 mpg highway rating is better than that of the Highlander hybrid. This from a car with a 6.2-liter, high-test-swillin’, 436-hp V-8 that runs to 60 in four seconds flat, twice as fast as most cars on this list.

 

And then there’s the Z06, America’s David to so many hoity-toity Goliaths. Its quiver stocked with pushrods, the Z06 slays the Ferrari F430 and Lamborghini Gallardo and, at 24 mpg on the highway, does 7 mpg better than either, with a 7.0-liter engine.

 

The Corvette accomplishes the unlikely by combining enough torque to wrench the Eiffel Tower into a Twizzler with a 0.57:1 sixth gear and 3.42:1 final-drive ratio so that, at 70 mph, the V-8 is turning just 1750 rpm, within a throttle blip of idle. Cruise at 100 mph, and it will yawn along at 2550 rpm.

 

The Corvette is a sports car that people can, and regularly do, drive daily. A concerned enthusiast with a Toyota Prius for commuting and a Mazda Miata weekend car, simply by owning two new metal and plastic cars, has arguably scraped a greater serving of Mother Nature’s bounty onto his self-satisfied plate.