[Dutchdivco]

Not to fault anyone elses approach to improved mileage,but heres my thinking in a nutshell. In 1966, the car makers, with the Gov't. looking over their shoulder, met a fork in the road (meeting emission standards), and they took the Left fork.
The initial focus was on Smog, caused by unburned gasoline coming out the tailpipe.They COULD have taken a look at the OTHER END of the pipe i.e. the engine. Unburned gas coming out the tailpipe is wasted gas, in addition to causing pollution.However, they focussed all their attention narrowly on the tailpipe. Their 'solution' involved wasting even more gas, in order to make sure there was ENOUGH unburned gas, at all driving conditions, to 'feed' the catalyctic converter, and, having the oil co.'s make gas less flamable (higher octane) in order to prevent engine knock (pre-ignition), even though this produced Nox, as a result of slower combustion.
Once they were firmly and irrevocably on this road, the Gov't began to place mileage standards (CAFE). In fact, the things they had done to meet emission standards actually lowered the mileage.The only place 'left' for the manufacturers to go was to aerodynamics, and lightening the load.Market demand limited how far they could go with aerodynamics, (People won't buy a car if it looks too unusual) and people won't pay for the extra expense of bellypans, so they developed "crunchmobiles", with thinner metal for bodypanels, and crunch zones to absorb impact.
My approach is to go back to 1965, and take the other fork in the road.There are a lot of advances that have developed in the last 50 years.By starting with a pre-1966 car, I don't have to live with the IMHO faulty problem solving solutions they came up with, which waste gas.I can take the other fork in the road.Whatever mods I make to the engine, I don't have to fight with the ECU, OR the Govt inspector, sticking their nose under my hood and telling me "You can't do that".Then, in other areas I can lower the body weight, (and there is more to work with, so more gains to be made), I can change the rear end and tranny, to a modern one with overdrive, and taller gears, adding disc brakes in the process, and then move on to aerodynamics, where, again, there is more room for improvement.There are still such cars around, they can be gotten fairly cheap, parts are plentiful.Anyway, thats my approach. Thing is, when I've posted on other mileage improving groups, I find the others are all talking about Efies and other ways to fool the computer, etc.So, I'm wondering am I the ONLY one taking the road (or fork in the road) less traveled?Jim