"Steve" <no@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
..... the mileage on a 400-HP Corvette is better than a 4-cylinder
Citation
back in the 80s. A truly efficient engine only uses as much fuel as is
demanded of it. Whether it is capable of 50 HP or 450 HP doesn't make
that much difference when its only being asked to deliver 25 HP.
With today's cars, the shape and weight of the chassis itself is a FAR
bigger factor in fuel economy than engine size.
_______________________________________________________________
The greatest increases in mileage over the past 30 years have been
attained
by making cars smaller to decrease vehicle WEIGHT. Carmakers had to
switch
to more costly and more failure-prone FWD in these smaller cars to
recapture
the space taken up by the driveshaft tunnel. A lesser but quite
im****tant
improvement in mileage was gained by computer controlled fuel mixtures.
Virtually all fuel management mileage improvement has been attained. The
only
thing left is cutting more WEIGHT. Smaller displacement engines do not
provide
better mileage, except for the contribution of their lower block WEIGHT.
There are no alternate fuels approaching the efficiency of petroleum in
dollars
per mile total cost to produce, except for solar power, which is not
available in
sufficient quantity, and nuclear power, which is religiously feared and
shunned.
The car of the future will be small, small, small.
Rodan. <---- Go ahead; pry my cold dead hands from my '92 Roadmaster.
|
