Answer
Sep 25, 2017 - 08:15 PM
Hi there,
Your reasoning is quite sound. The air is less dense up on the Reef, which indeed reduces aerodynamic drag. However, the engine would be more efficient at sea level due to the higher air pressure. In practice, the former effect (aerodynamic drag) has slightly less of an effect on fuel consumption than the engine's efficiency (at least at moderate speeds, say, up to 120 km/h). This is mostly due to modern cars being fairly slippery by design. The influence of drag increases with speed, though - meaning that a vehicle (with enough power to reach higher speeds) should become relatively more fuel efficient at high speed at altitude. More-powerful cars are also known to post higher top speeds in Gauteng than they do at sea level, as their surplus of power compensates for the altitude-induced drop in power, while the reduced drag allows them to go faster.
Hope this helps,
The AutoTrader Team
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