Can you modify a car to save fuel? Fifth Gear says "no" (video)

[fearlessjoe]

wanna see 5th gear **** all over the point of this site.....

surely it cant be lack of research.... if you google how to improve mpg this site is on the first page... they must know its possible and not all that hard

so either they want people thinking you cant do it..... or there incompetent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39g5D7h7jf8

[oil pan 4]

Increasing fuel economy is only as impossible as increasing top speed, acceleration, horsepower, handling or some other performance parameter.

They're just incompetent.

[vskid3]

That was pretty bad. Brand new tires on an MPG test? A little research will show you that you need to put a couple thousand miles on a set of tires before they'll deliver peak fuel economy. Wet surfaces have less friction? If you're sliding, but pushing all that water out of the way is not going to use less energy.

They don't even say that just the methods they tried don't work, they say you can't modify a car to get better mileage, you can only adjust the nut behind the wheel. I guess basjoos must be faking his numbers. :P

[Harlan]

The biggest problem was it wasn't scientific. They did two run and tested several things at the same time. We don't even know at this point if the tires helped and the new ECU failed to deliver, or if the ECU delivered but the tires had issues. And we don't know if temperature, humidity, or any other factors effected the outcome.

Oh and the way they measured the fuel economy was horribly inaccurate. 1Gal is not enough to average out inconsistencies, and running it until it is empty could also give varying results depending on tank configuration.

The whole video was worthless, and I feel dumber for having watched it.

[vskid3]

Originally Posted by Harlan

Oh and the way they measured the fuel economy was horribly inaccurate. 1Gal is not enough to average out inconsistencies, and running it until it is empty could also give varying results depending on tank configuration.

That's a good point. And when they pumped all the gas out of the tank for the first test, there was still some fuel left in the lines. I wonder if they added gas to the tank, primed the lines, then emptied the tank for the second test, or did that gallon go towards filling the lines.

[ThermionicScott]

Never heard of the program until just now. Given the opening sequence, I'm guessing they didn't have a lot of enthusiasm for this story idea and likely hoped it wouldn't work.

[oil pan 4]

Well the premise of the show is to take gasoline and turn it into noise and tire smoke.

[jakobnev]

We should have our own car show.

[Xist]

We could at least put out one video, but even if we linked it as a video response, I do not know how many people would watch it. Top Gear had interesting people. I did not find this guy noteworthy at all, so I volunteer as tribute!
I still want to rebut Mythbuster's dimple car.
My Accord is stock. I could test a few things on that--one at a time--and make a video. Members complained about Mythbusters installing a small tank in the trunk and weighing it before and after. Running until empty is not scientific for you, either, but what could any of us do that would satisfy the rest of you?
Run a full tank until empty?
How did they measure the gallon? Did they fill a can at a gas station until it read 1.000 gallon or 3.785 liters? Did they fill a one-gallon can and call it good?

[Cd]

I'd click on the link, but I don't want to make them 1/10th of a penny of ad revenue from me watching their ignorant lies.