400hp, 500ft/lbs...and 110+ MPG?!

[Chris Coles]

Re: 400hp, 500ft/lbs...and 110+ MPG?!

Completely lost for words.... :p

[Slimprofits]

Re: 400hp, 500ft/lbs...and 110+ MPG?!

There is always hypermiling.

[flintlock]

Re: 400hp, 500ft/lbs...and 110+ MPG?!

I call BS on that one. The use of ethanol made me suspicious right away also.

What's scary is how easily they can make people believe its some grand conspiracy that these type vehicles aren't already in production. It's not just a matter of making an efficient engine. It has to pass safety, EPA, and other regulations. Auto makers would love to introduce a car that gets 100mpg AND passes all safety standards AND EPA standards AND most importantly, PEOPLE WOULD BUY.

[big67]

Re: 400hp, 500ft/lbs...and 110+ MPG?!

Hey guys this is pure BS.

This mileage is impossible with that kind of car, let alone using ethanole.
Here in europe we have a big market pressure to achieve fuel saving (fuel being priced about 3 times your price).

The best we can do with very small diesel production cars is around 20 to 25 km per liter, that is 47 to 59 miles per gallon.

We had a very small production VW car credited of 33 km per liter (77 miles per gallon) that went out of production 3 years ago (the technology was too costly for the car - 3 pistons 1 liter diesel engine with variable turbocharger and a freaking lot of fuel saving technologies on board of a very small city vehicle). Still you can get similar mileage from a smart.

There are prototipes running approaching 1 liter per 100 km (around 230 miles per gallon), but we are speaking of ultralight cars with 1 seat that can run only in circuits.

[Chris Coles]

Re: 400hp, 500ft/lbs...and 110+ MPG?!

Hey guys this is pure BS.

This mileage is impossible with that kind of car, let alone using ethanole.
Here in europe we have a big market pressure to achieve fuel saving (fuel being priced about 3 times your price).

The best we can do with very small diesel production cars is around 20 to 25 km per liter, that is 47 to 59 miles per gallon.

We had a very small production VW car credited of 33 km per liter (77 miles per gallon) that went out of production 3 years ago (the technology was too costly for the car - 3 pistons 1 liter diesel engine with variable turbocharger and a freaking lot of fuel saving technologies on board of a very small city vehicle). Still you can get similar mileage from a smart.

There are prototipes running approaching 1 liter per 100 km (around 230 miles per gallon), but we are speaking of ultralight cars with 1 seat that can run only in circuits.

I can tell you from personal experience a three cylinder engine "Nods" end to end and destroys itself in a very short timescale, so I would warrant that is the underlying reason for a three cylinder engine being withdrawn.

[sgominator]

Re: 400hp, 500ft/lbs...and 110+ MPG?!

He said he has more than quadrupled the industry average engine efficiency of about 8 percent.

Are cold fusion and/or perpetual motion somehow involved in the project?

[we_are_toast]

Re: 400hp, 500ft/lbs...and 110+ MPG?!

... in the event of an accident, mass wins.

Drop a horse and an ant off a 3 story building and see if "mass wins".

Efficient dissipation of kinetic energy wins.

He said he has more than quadrupled the industry average engine efficiency of about 8 percent.

Most car engines run at about 20% efficiency. Even if he could achieve a 32% efficiency, a 12% gain in engine efficiency would never translate to anything near a 400% gain in gas mileage.

Complete and total BS.

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: 400hp, 500ft/lbs...and 110+ MPG?!

I worked several years as a research scientist on alternative fuel engines for the world's oldest and largest independant research instute. Move along, people, there's nothing to see here.

His power claims could be true, it's easy to build a racing engine. His mileage claims might possibly be true if he's using some clever trick to drastically reduce power for a test run (136 MPG at 70 MPH in that body shape is just barely plausible).

His "test results" and video don't pass the smell test as serious. Show me chassis dynamometer data from Southwest Reasearch Institute or similar.

Every good con starts with a good tall tale. I predict he attracts foolish investors then runs away with the money. In a 400 hp race car at 130 MPH.....:rolleyes::p;)

[big67]

Re: 400hp, 500ft/lbs...and 110+ MPG?!

Maybe. What about CNG (methane) powered cars? Are there any in USA?

[sgominator]

Re: 400hp, 500ft/lbs...and 110+ MPG?!

I can tell you from personal experience a three cylinder engine "Nods" end to end and destroys itself in a very short timescale

The Smart runs on a 3 cylinder engine.
There are lots of smarts on the road in italy but i still have to see a broken one.
Sure a smooth trip is something different... my 2 cylinder motorcycle is ways more comfortable ;)

[big67]

Re: 400hp, 500ft/lbs...and 110+ MPG?!

Wow. Sorry for asking again: what about CNG (methane) powered engines... in USA?

[Scot]

Re: 400hp, 500ft/lbs...and 110+ MPG?!

Drop a horse and an ant off a 3 story building and see if "mass wins".

Efficient dissipation of kinetic energy wins.

Not sure what you mean by "efficient" here, but minimizing dp/dt of the driver, especially the heart and brain, often wins. Larger vehicles tend to do that for the driver.

[FrankL]

Re: 400hp, 500ft/lbs...and 110+ MPG?!

Wow. Sorry for asking again: what about CNG (methane) powered engines... in USA?

LPG (mix of buthane and propane) has, again, a lower energy content than petrol. And the pressurized tank weighs a lot more. So the range of the car is going to be smaller (bad thing with average car travelling distances in the US), or the milage will be even worse as a larger tank is needed to make up for the loss in range (more weight = less MPG).

Oh, for finding answers to these kind of questions there's this thing called google.

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: 400hp, 500ft/lbs...and 110+ MPG?!

Wow. Sorry for asking again: what about CNG (methane) powered engines... in USA?

They exist and they run well. Most major cities in the US have them in fleets ( gas utilities, transit buses, city vehicles) We ran a small fleet in package delivery service at FEDEX in the early 90's. The problems with CNG are fuel storage and cost of compression. No matter how much pressure you use, the molecules of a gas are far apart compared to a liquid. Our test vehicles ran at 3500 psi to 5000 psi tank pressures. The natural gas industry has videos showing how safe the tanks are, but it's still a practical challenge, and even at 5000 psi you can’t carry much fuel on the vehicle, so range is low. And it costs a ton of electrical energy to compress pipeline gas to that pressure. The fuel stations were enormous and costly, and the advocates never want to count the electric bill for the fuel compressor in the fuel economy. The fuel burns cleanly and emissions are good. The fuel cost is super low simply because there’s no road taxes on it. Gasoline and diesel carry huge taxes. The National renewable Energy Lab was one of our sponsors / partners, check this link for legitimate info on alternative fuels. http://www.nrel.gov/vehiclesandfuels/ Bottom line: there is no free lunch and no magic engine, but we can easily live without oil if we want to , and even get cleaner air.fficeffice" />

[big67]

Re: 400hp, 500ft/lbs...and 110+ MPG?!

Thank you thriftyandboringinohio very much for the infos.

I was looking for that exactly, but had no time for googling the pieces together.

PS. I am not talking about LPG, but CNG.