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No one likes paying for petrol, but there's a group of people dedicated to buying – and using – as little of it as humanly possible. Meet the hypermilers.

The online community are dedicated to beating their carmaker's stated “miles per gallon” figures by as much as possible and will go an awfully long way to do it (using as little petrol as they can, naturally).

While keen to stress that safety is at the heart of everything they do, there's no doubt some of the techniques they advise are controversial. Drafting is the chief among them.

Drafting – that is to say sitting close to the car in front – can save you huge amounts of fuel. As much as 40% in fact.

That's because a large amount of your car's energy is used up pushing the air in front of it out of the way – if another car is doing that for you, then you need a lot less petrol to hold the same speed.

But there's also no doubt it's a safety risk, reducing your visibility and taking away time to react if the car in front brakes suddenly.

The second controversial technique sometimes used by the community is driving with your engine off.

By turning off your engine (after you've built up speed, naturally) you undoubtedly save fuel, you also lose your power steering, can't accelerate away from problems and might well have your braking compromised too.

Can you learn anything?

(Image: Solent)

Fortunately, a lot of what the community advises not only works, but is simple and easy to adopt. So here are the top tips anyone can use to save money on petrol and diesel.

Keep your car properly serviced : A well-maintained car is up to 10% more efficient than one that has been allowed to fester in its old oil.

Get rid of unnecessary weight : Reducing weight is free and gains performance and economy, so take out all of the clutter from your car.

Smoother is better : The less pressure on the accelerator, the less fuel you're using – avoid sharp braking (or let the engine slow the car naturally) and focus on the road ahead to keep your accelerating as smooth as possible.

More air, less petrol : Under-inflated tyres are less efficient, make sure yours are topped up to the manufacturer's recommended levels.

Ditch the drag : Roof racks off when they're not in use everyone. In fact anything removable sticking out of your car that you don't need should ideally go.

Go slow, go long : Driving at between 50 and 60 miles an hour is generally the most petrol efficient way to get from point A to point B. It can save you up to 40% fuel on journeys (and given traffic in Britain, probably not cost you any time)

No air con under 40mph : Open a window instead. That said, if you're going fast the drag of an open window uses more energy than air con, so switch to that if you need to stay cool (although ideally on “recirculation” mode)

You can see more on the techniques section of Hypermiler.co.uk.