[Ianhp1]

I've averaged 18.3, but that's mostly short trips through town or 15 minute back-road blasts to P'boro station.

The few time I've taken it for a run and even with 'spirited' driving at times, I've got 23mpg+ ...On a recent trip to Newport, down the A43, A14, M6, M5, M50, A449, M4 I drove 'normal' speeds with the rest of the traffic and average 26.1.

On the track day at Mallory park, I averaged 9.6!!

 

[Ianhp1]

Colin makes a good point...

Everything is relative...

When S5 owners talk about 'Driving Miss Daisy' that means driving the same speed/acceleration as everyone else on the road. Hardly slow, it just feels really slow as the car has so much more to give and you have to make a real effort to drive that slowly!! As Colin mentions, it's still very easy to be 'interestingly quick' without really stretching the car or making the fuel guage look like a speedometer during an emergency stop!

Driven between 2k and 3k revs unders acceleration with half an inch of throttle, will whisk you up to speed faster than the cars around you and the mpg will stay in the 20s... that V8 making just enough noise to let you know what's under the hood (esp. if you have an aftermarket exhaust) and bring that smile to your face

...There's also something satisfying about making rapid progress and still knowing you've got so much more in reserve... it's a form of 'abstenance' and you feel virtuous for not giving in to the temptation that is: Burying your foot into the shagpile, the needle into the red and watching the horizon race towards you.

"Once during Prohibition I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water."
-W. C. Fields

God I love this car!

I.