I know, you just ride to ride. I learned a long time ago though to maintain a steady throttle, even in pursuits.
When I was a kid, my Dad had a "Mile Mizer" thing in his '54 Chevrolet that was really just a vacuum gauge with the scale marked in colored "zone" … the higher the vacuum, the better the mileage.
As I grew up and started driving myself, I soon had a '69 Dodge Dart 340 with 4 speed and 3.91 rear gears, it had a 780 Holley and a Isky cam too, it would fly. I usually did not even check mileage, but just for kicks I put that old vacuum gauge in it that I found in Dad's tool boxes after he passed, and I sometimes played with it and by golly, I could get 16-18 mpg if I tried hard, easy on the gas, always high test. Our '68 Satelite Sport Wagon with 383 4bbl and 3.23 gearing did about the same I found out in '72 when Mom, Sis, & I went to visit SW Texas for vacation, but like the Swinger, "The Wagon" as we called it had dual exhaust with those short stubby mufflers, it sounded so good, was hard to go easy on the pedal, but I forced myself.
Once I was assigned to a special assignment 250 miles away with another trooper . He wanted to drive but he hit a deer a couple days before we left, so we took my car, but he drove it at first. He was "patting" the gas in a slow rhythm, it was so aggrevating, so I asked him about his police car, he said it was a gas hog, I told him mine would be too if I drove it the way he was driving it, he was peeved I think. It was a '86 Chevrolet Caprice with 350 4bbl & 4R700 transmission, 3.42 rear. He said he was a good driver, I told him he was wearing out the accelerator pump. He did not even realize he was pumping it, so used to the habit I guess. Yeah, he let me drive then.
You know what, I don't know why I wrote this ….