Popular Mechanics Picking up on the Ecomodding Vibes

February 10, 2011

Sure, while we like to call it ecomodding (with no hyphen), we’re still happy that the term is poised to jump the shark as it is begins to be used by mainstream media companies. Not only are we glad to see PM picking up on the term, but they’ve applied it to factory changes made […]

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Dave Cloud’s Super Aerodynamic Electric Car, the Dolphin

February 1, 2011

[singlepic id=130 w=560] Infrequently do we find a homebuilt car that is well-designed, aesthetically appealing, environmentally friendly, and inexpensive. In Dave Cloud’s Dolphin — originally discussed (with many more photos) in the EcoModder forum — we find that all our expectations for a homebuilt EV are surpassed. That’s probably because Dave has had his fair […]

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High Speed Rail in the US: Why are we so bad at this?

October 11, 2010

It was just the other day when I was regaling a few friends with an account of the time that California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, almost walked right over me while I was taking a photo. I was alerted that Gov. Schwarzenegger had just visited Japan to check out the shinkansen (high speed rail) system we […]

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Vehicle & Internal Combustion Engine Efficiency Improvements (con’t.)

July 12, 2010

This post is a continuation/generalization/more organized version of my earlier blog post. There are a lot of improvements possible for internal combustion engines (aka ICE’s).  It helps to list the areas that are causing losses, to start: — The geometry of the physical layout of the piston, connecting rod and the crankshaft is less than […]

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The Gadgetman Groove: Latest Fuel Economy BS Hits NPR

July 5, 2010

Remember the Tornado? That little piece of foil you stuck instead your car’s intake with the hope of improving your fuel economy? Despite the fact that I still see one from time to time at the local car parts store, I’m thankful to say that this ill-advised craze has passed, for the most part. However, […]

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Progressive Automotive X-Prize Knockout Round

July 1, 2010

I think that the X-Prize competition is fulfilling the objective of focusing on vehicle efficiency.  Starting with the results so far, I am hoping to contribute to the discussion and to the process. Here’s the link to the PDF that shows the results of the X-Prize Knockout Round. The measured MPGe of the teams in […]

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EcoModder Nominated “Best of Green” by Treehugger

March 22, 2010

This year, for the first time ever, EcoModder has been nominated Best of Green by the wonderful site Treehugger. From now through April 2nd, you can vote on your favorite green things here, and EcoModder can be found under the transportation category. It’s always nice to be nominated, but it’s even better to win. So […]

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214 mpg with DIY aerodynamic fairings on a Honda 125cc motorbike

January 25, 2010

Dutch efficiency enthusiast Allert Jacobs has converted his new Honda motorbike into a streamliner capable of getting over 200 mpg (US) cruising at 55 mph. The Honda ANF125i Innova was pretty efficient right out of the box, since it followed the basic formula for low fuel consumption: small size + light weight + modest engine […]

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