Great Gas Mileage, in 1973 ???

[Fla._Deadheader]

http://www.opel-p1.nl/custom/testcar/Shell%20Opel.htm

[Dan_Shade]

is there a translation of that out there anywhere?

why would you keep a radiator if you insulated it?

[beenthere]

That is pretty good claimed gas mileage.

[Bill]

Good mpg - esp liked the comments about expected future mpg ratings.

So where do you think we went wrong   ???

[zopi]

Good mpg - esp liked the comments about expected future mpg ratings.

So where do you think we went wrong   ???

We allowed the oil industry to pay off the politicians and auto manufacturers...IMO...

[moonhill]

It must be a hoax, all conspiracy theories are misleading.  No one would ever try and cover such a thing up.

Tim

[Ironmower]

I'm sure the goverment didn't have anything too do with it ;)

[Gary_C]

For the internal combustion engine, the greatest power loss is heat. I saw recently where overall the IC engine is about 40% efficient with the rest lost to heat. That is most likely why all the insulation on everything. the only question is what they use that heat for instead of just rejecting it all to the air.

I just read about an inventor that has passed away that just might have developed a new type of cast iron block and piston engine that uses the cylinders in pairs with the first cylinder used to compress air for the second cylinder. Apparently the inventors heirs have aroused some interest from engine companies and tests are now being run. There were impressive efficiency improvements in this new engine but it remains to be fully developed and tested.

Incidently the main reason that an engine vastly different from the old tried and reliable cast block, piston engine has held on so long is the massive amount of dollars invested in tooling to machine these engines. Nothing has come along yet that will make it financially worthwhile for an engine manufacturer to scrap all those dollars and invest in new tooling. That's one reason why this new paired cylinder engine concept holds much promise as not much new tooling would be required.

At one time many people had high hopes that the gas turbine could be that engine and there was one year that a gas turbine was just one ten dollar ball bearing away from sweeping the Indy 500, but the next year they put air intake restrictions on that killed the gas turbine. It's hard to tell if the gas turbine could have been mass produced and/or was efficient enough to have replaced the IC engine.

[olyman]

At one time many people had high hopes that the gas turbine could be that engine and there was one year that a gas turbine was just one ten dollar ball bearing away from sweeping the Indy 500, but the next year they put air intake restrictions on that killed the gas turbine. It's hard to tell if the gas turbine could have been mass produced and/or was efficient enough to have replaced the IC engine.
[/quote]international harvester also built a protype run of 5 ??? tractors with a gas turbine in them. no trans, as the engine had enough power to carry the load all the way to the top of the r's. seen one of them in penfield,illinois   it was called 574.

[Don_Papenburg]

I think Chrysler also messed around with the turbine .  If I recall the thing used too much fuel  but could whupazz on the hemi.

[ScottAR]

574 had a hydrostatic trans. driven from a gear reduction box off
the "prop shaft" of the engine.

Cat had an experimental mining loader with a gas turbine.
Deere played with the concept too...  Deere also played with
a rotary engine for a time as well. 

[slowzuki]

Gas turbines use a whack of fuel.  The main plus they have is lots of hp per pound/volume and quite simple design.

Eat fuel, noisy, don't like sucking dirt, no torque at low rpm, long startup, terrible emissions, poor cold weather startup etc.

[slowzuki]

Looking at the link its pretty obvious it should get good milage.  Stripped out shell, hard tires, no suspension etc.  I'd bet it ran a burn and coast program to make the mileage.  I suspect the engine is sleeved down to use tiny pistons, probably only 5-10 hp rating on it at most.  It is odd they kept the rad, a tiny motorcycle rad would have weighed less but I'm not sure what the competition rules are.

The SAE Supermileage comp that I used to run it had some specific things that had to stay.  The year I took our car the winner achieved almost 3000 mpg.  Our car pulled about 900 mpg but we had to run a stock motor as our modded one died.  Our cars were tiny compared to that rig though.

[Bill]

I don't usually like to plug products but I'll give some credit where I think it might be due.

Back in June I made a run down to FL in an '01 VW diesel Jetta w/122K miles under the belt. She mostly got 51-52 mpg on the interstates with a little around town mixed in. But I did manage to get in a good interstate run from FL thru to NC at 70 mph ( the speed limit there ) with the a/c on  - recorded a solid 57 mpg. Mileage on either side was till 51-52 so no chance of underfilling the tank to mess up the mpg calculation.  Sure would like to see 60 mpg outa it to quiet some o the diesel detractors - maybe with the a/c off ?       ;D