Quote:
Originally Posted by dcb
year: 1956, a 13.5 hp engine drives this vehicle to 120mph
Let's say (complete swag) that it is using 1 GPH @ 120mph, that would translate into 120 MPG. Wouldn't it be cool if the beurocrats decided "what the hey, if you are getting 120mpg (without cheating using other energy sources), we don't care what you drive or how fast you drive it"? |
There are more impressive things with that bike... in 1956 they set 38 different records, five of which still stand today, 55 years later! The records varied with engine sizes, the 500cc record that still stands is at 211mph.
BNI Certified LSR Records
Your estimate of 1GPH probably isn't too far off, probably closer to 1.5GPH and 80mpg.
Peak power is 13.5hp.
= 34,357.5 BTU/hr (1hp = 2545 BTU/hr)
Most engines are roughly 20% efficient at converting gas to forward motion, so divide by .2
=171,787.5 BTU/hr
Gas has 114,000 BTU/gal which puts us at 1.5GPH.
The big question is what did his engine run on... it ran in a "Fuel" class which means it ran on something other than gasoline (methanol, nitromethane, gasoline with N2O, etc)