[cfg83]

aerohead -

Originally Posted by aerohead

Saturn achieved 80-mpg(highway) in 1989.On paper only though.GM's/Aerovironment,chief,Dr.Paul MacCready,claimed that should the body of the "Impact" electric car (under development until 1996) be dropped onto a conventional chassis ( you can read this as Saturn/Geo/Chevy/Buick/Oldsmobile/Opel/Cadillac/Pontiac/Holden/Suzuki/Isuzu/Toyota/Daihatsu),with a 1.5-liter gasoline engine,5-speed manual transmission,and economy calibrations,you'd be looking at 80-mpg (highway).Since the frontal area of Saturn is in the ballpark of the Impact/EV-1/EV-2,if you can cut its drag to that of GM's electro wundercar,and ignoring the low-rolling-resistance tires of same,50-mpg should be doable.

Wow, this is very cool to know. Maybe I should get my hands on some EV1 blueprints. I suspect a Saturn SC1 coupe would be the best platform. Also, I remember that the Chevy Geo Storm looked a lot like the SC1 :

Geo Storm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geo_Storm

The Geo Storm was a sport compact car manufactured by Isuzu and sold in the United States by General Motors from 1990 through 1993 as part of GM's Geo line of inexpensive automobiles. The same vehicles, with minor variations, were sold in Canada in the 1992 & 1993 model years only. The Storm was intended to be a budget car with the look and feel of a sports car. It replaced the related Geo Spectrum, which was sold in hatchback and sedan, and like its predecessor, it is only sold in 2-door hatchback and station wagon.

CarloSW2