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February 20, 2008
376MPG? In 1973? Quit Whining Detroit!
By John
Editor
Since the Big Three have been crying incessantly about the new CAFE standards, it’s always interesting to see something which points out just how long they’ve been asleep at the wheel. Way back in 1973, Shell—yup, that Shell—sponsored a contest to see who could make the most fuel efficient car. The winner was this 1959 Opel T-1, which achieved a mind-numbing 376MPG while traveling at 30MPH. The secret was light weight, hard, low-resistance tires, and an innovative fuel system which fed the little four banger leaned-out gas vapor. Until recently, this masterpiece had been languishing in a museum at Talladega Superspeedway, conveniently forgotten by champion whiners like the General’s Bob Lutz. But fortunately, Seattle car aficionado Evan McMullen has just plucked it from obscurity. McMullen, who owns the Emerald City’s Cosmopolitan Motors, is no car-hating tree-hugger. Over the years his sales floor been home to numerous Bugattis, Ferraris, and rarities like the Jaguar XJ220, so it’s pretty cool to see him trying to keep folks honest about the possibilities for fuel-efficient cars. Read more at the Seattle PI.
Comments
Keith
Apr 29, 2008 at 7:53 pm
like Jim said, we could get that kind of mileage out of cars today, but we’d have to do without a lot of things so many people don’t want to give up. All of the electronics, the safety features, the creature comforts, they all add a lot of weight. They would be so slow, a bicycle might be faster than driving, the low friction tires wouldn’t corner woth a damn, and it would be really impractical. It’s not politics, it’s physics.
Arjan Hart
Mar 23, 2008 at 12:16 pm
more info about this car at http://www.opel-p1.nl/custom/testcar/Shell%20Opel.htm
Ted
Feb 22, 2008 at 5:20 am
I can sum Detroit up on one easy and VERY TRUE statement… ready?
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SIMPLICITY is a BAD WORD.
Ted
Feb 22, 2008 at 5:17 am
“…As for the comment on why things haven’t changed much in the auto tech area. That’s the nature of a mature technology. Improvements come, but they are incremental. We’ve spent over 100 years developing this stuff, all the easy leaps forward have been done. It’s a hard slog now to improve things…”
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NO NO NO… this is whitewashing the obvious. Planned Obsolescence. If I want candy coating, I’ll stop by Mr. Bulky at the mall, thank you.
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Seriously, look at Hybrids. I bring this up time and time again. Look at the latest advancement in Hybrids to hit the market, GM’s 2-mode Hybrid. This monster of a transmission houses 2 electric motors, 4 clutches and a small village of migrant workers. It’s freaking huge. I gawked at it at the Philly Auto Show recently. With all this complexity will surely come expense, maybe not for the first owner but the second owner will have a hole in the driveway in which he’ll be throwing his hard-earned cash… but hey, at least he’ll be getting an extra 5 MPG.
Jim Richardson
Feb 22, 2008 at 12:31 am
You can’t compare a car that has no safety standards to meet, performance that would leave a 90 year old nun wondering if she should get out and push, with something that can run with the big boys on the highway, get out of it’s own way on the street, and meet all relevant highway safety standards.
Sure, we *can* get 500 MPG out of a motorized vehicle, but not in one you’d want to drive on the street.
As for the comment on why things haven’t changed much in the auto tech area. That’s the nature of a mature technology. Improvements come, but they are incremental. We’ve spent over 100 years developing this stuff, all the easy leaps forward have been done. It’s a hard slog now to improve things, and any solution has to work with things like safety regs and the way people use the cars. A car that can only go 30MPH isn’t a whole lot of use to me. How about you?
Still, 376 MPG is pretty freaking impressive, now or in 1973.
ClassicNation
Feb 21, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Pretty sweet. It just goes to show that automobile technology is more advanced than the major auto companies want us to believe. It is cool to see companies like Google jumping into the arena to further research into this with projects like RechargeIT (http://www.google.org/recharge/). I don’t see why technology in automobile fuel efficiency hasn’t changed much in the last 50 years, compared with other technology sectors (Iphones, wireless internet…).
Ted
Feb 21, 2008 at 1:56 am
RETROMAN – - – AAAAAAAMEN!
Ted
Feb 21, 2008 at 12:55 am
WOW… 376 MPG. And it even has FOUR wheels!
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…how nice.
John Gelnett
Feb 20, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Wow thats insane. But you know what would happen if a company mass produced a car that got 376 mpg, gas prices would go to about $50 a gallon.
retroman
Feb 20, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Hmmm… a few amateur garage mechanics, a 20yr old(at that time) brick of a car, and a competition held 34yrs ago, and that same iron laden brick got 376mpg?!?!?!? Wow!!!! JUST goes to show what can be done when there’s no politics involved. Personally, I think hybrids are a hoax and will continue to be so long as there are a few gas-only models out there that can match a hybrids efficiency(ex. certain yrs. and models of Civics can match a new Civic hybrid. The only thing the hybrid has going for it is its increased size and interior comfort over LEVs of 10-30yrs ago. In many cases mpg is the same.)