2011 v6 mustang attains 48.5 mpg at mileage challenge in Bristol Tn.
1457 laps @43.9 mph.
Several new pieces out there today.
http://www…lenge-html
Yes it was driving technique by professionals, but the point is;
We have the technology, lets use it even to the detriment of the big oil companies who certainly don’t want us to.
I saw that, pretty amazing. Of course, with regular driving I’d be down in the lower 20s (Car and Driver got 18 mpg with it during their (very fast) test). Shows what driving technique can do for/against mpgs.
So did this driving technique include turning off the engine, putting it in neutral and coasting downhill? Illegal in all 50 states! also highly unsafe.
the Saab and Morris Minor both got this kind of milage (unloaded, driver only) way back in 1968. we had the technology then, without the “driving technique” foolishness and propaganda like this.
No, this was lapping a racetrack. I doubt the Saab and Morris would do 5.4 sec. to 60.
Nobody’s claiming 48 mpg for street use. Rather, it’s the amazing level of performance that we can now get with reasonable economy.
MB E320 CDI set several world records a few years back:
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/05/02/055810.html
Drove 30 days non-stop (just re-fueling, drivers, maintenance, etc.), average speed 140 MPH (including all stops) for 100,000 miles. It will also get 40+ MPG with less aggressive driving. The technology is here, but it does cost money.
Twotone
freaking amazing.
Yes, everything costs money when you only make one of them. Mass produce something and put it in millions of cars and it costs next to nothing.
It will cost “next to nothing” only if you don’t count the cost of what it took you to be able to mass produce it.
The combination of performance,low emissions and good fuel economy have been with us for quite a few years, it is good to see continued work though.
My question is, are the days of when car manufactures had to be forced by legislation to make their cars safer,get better mileage and exhale fewer emissions gone away?
no, those days are still with us, as the oil companies have as much to say about gas milage as the car makers do. sad but true.
Cool.
But IMHO the real potential now lies in the changing of the regulations. Imagine if regulations allowed European and Asian mini-vehicles on public roads, say up to 45 mph speed limits. Imagine also if the feds would allow reduced crash protection systems for these vehicles and perhaps even eliminate import tariffs for such vehicles (perhaps even a $4B “cash for mileage” subsidy program?) to make them cheap enough so that people who don’t do a lot of driving would actually want to BUY them.
IMHO that would have a real impact on gas consumption and all the resultant benefits.
Better yet, imagine that the $4B peed away in the CFC program along with a few hundred billion dollars from pork barrel projects were invested instead in a nationwide electrical vehicle recharging infrastructure to make the range of electric cars effectively infinite.
Personally, I don’t think the barriers to real reductions in the use of gasoline are really technical. They’re political.
The average driver does not realize how much he pays to accelerate and decelerate…or how hard it is to push a hole in a 80 mph wind…
Back in the '50’s and '60’s drivers in the Mobilgas Economy Run could achieve incredible mileage by using driving technique not technology…The same is true today…
How very true.
Trouble is, how do you change everyone’s behaviors? And you’d need to change EVERYONE’s, so the poor fella trying to accelerate slowly doesn;t get blown off the road?
In truth, I think the real answer is to take the politics out of things and invest our money in gas reduction efforts that actually make sense, like the ones I suggested. There are others, of course, but you get the idea.
So did this driving technique include turning off the engine, putting it in neutral and coasting downhill? Illegal in all 50 states!
If you’re going to make a “bold” statement like that, please at least fact-check it to see if it’s true. Otherwise, you might have others wondering exactly how apt your username is.
Back when I owned a MT car, and was “playing around” with certain hypermiling techniques, I perused the entirety of the Commonwealth of PA Motor Vehicle Code. It contains NO law against “coasting,” be it in neutral, engine-off, or whatever.
You can argue against the wisdom of such; you might wish that it were law…but please, don’t spread misinformation! (Golly knows there’s enough of that on the 'net already.)
[I will retract the statement, and offer a full apology, if you can produce the PA code that explicitly outlaws operating a (non-commercial) vehicle in neutral and/or shut down.]
There is no one way to change everyone’s mindset. Issuing a tax/fee to current fuel prices, similar to the UK/EU, would just drive most people insane, and cause the public figure(s) who voted for it to be tarred and feathered
If your goal was to reduce demand for oil, you could build light rail mass transit and stop widening and building new roads. You could also charge tolls instead of raising fuel taxes.
But I bet we’d spend less (in gas) taxes to reduce demand by X bbls then we’d spend on light rail, etc.
I just realized the answer to my own question. You change peoples’ behaviors by removing artificial impediments to their behaving in the way you’d like.
Like removing impediments to people buying the truely miserly european and asian cars, at least in areas and for speed at which they’ll work well.
Nobody’s claiming 48 mpg for street use
Well I get that easy with my VW diesel.
We have the technology to make IC cars with oil changes measured in years, not miles and most of the other components maintenance free, including the brakes. Why haven’t we ? Such technology has not found a way to support the present automotive and energy corporate profit structure. It use to be that tractor technology lagged behind car for durability and efficiency reasons; it now surpasses it for the same. You’re right, it’s there. But, we can’t extract enough consumer money on a regular basis (gas fill ups and maintenance) to make it worthwhile.