I agree with Mike. I flew 172's before. There is no comparison on speed and efficiency. Of course the cockpit is a little tighter fit but it is a two place vs a four place with a back seat. Still it is very comfortable. I have not tried to transport a set of golf clubs (I think I could make it work), but my wife and I have no problems packing what we need.
My cruise speeds are similar to Mike's: I plan for 150-160 mph cruise speeds and burn about 7.0-7.5 gph at 25-40 LOP. Here is a pic going to SnF in March 2011 running LOP. We are cruising at 9500'. You can notice in the top left of the GRT EFIS the true airspeed (156mph). Also notice on the GRT EIS the middle bottom number is the fuel burn (7.4 gph) and the RPM is the top left number (2460 rpm). Lastly, notice the ground speed on the Garmin 695 showing 193 mph.
This second picture was taken within a few minutes of the picture above. The speeds are a tad different but settings were pretty much the same. You can see the CHT and EGT LOP numbers on the bottom of the EFIS (all 4 CHT's in the left graph labeled "C", all 4 EGT's on the right graph labeled "E"). CHT's were running #1 310, #2 309, #3 309, #4 308. EGT's in this shot are showing LOP operations. It may be hard to see but they are running #1 37, #2 27, #3 29, #4 35 degrees LOP.
Of course you can always go faster at the expense of burning more fuel. This picture is the same trip, next day. Again, we are at 9500' but this time I am running around 50-60 ROP. I am burning 10.1 gph now spinning at 2780 rpm. My ground speed was the only speed I captured in this picture. You can see it was 219 mph. My TAS was around 180 or so. I was really pushing the plane as we were trying to outrun a storm front and get in front of it before it trapped us on that trip. I do not normally fly with these settings but this is a good comparison of the differences in performance when looking at two different power configurations at the same altitude.
There are other RV's that fly faster than the 9A but when comparing the 9A to other certificated GA aircraft I don't think it can be beat. I have talked mainly about the speed/engine performance above but the handling characteristics are also much superior to any 172 or Cherokee I have flown. I have flown the Cirrus and they do seem similar in handling but they are also much more expensive to own.
You will love flying a 9. It is an RV!!
