Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank Lee
Another thing that really seems disingenuous today is the mileage claim at 35 mph...
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You've hit the nail on the head, Frank, it does seem disingenuous today.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Fry
The Riley figures are completely misleading, unless you read the fine print. Nobody else quotes mileage at 35 mph…By headlining 128 mpg, they are off to a bad start…The streamlining is awful…its "all show, no go."
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For a bit of historical perspective, the prototype was built and those plans were offered 30 years ago, when the National Speed Limit was 55 mph. Riley's mileage figures are clear ("At 35 mph, Centurion delivers at 128 mpg. At 45-mph, fuel economy is 103 mpg, and at 55 mph it drops to 85 mpg.") and are in the body of the information of that page, they're sure not hidden away, and by the standards of the era they're pretty impressive.
The styling is a bit too yesterday's-car-of-the-future for my tastes, and Riley's more recent vehicles are much improved in the streamlining department. Auto styling is a compromise of many factors; one factor is streamlining, one is cost, and one is what the public will accept. Circa 1980 the acceptance bar was not where it is today. I'd call the Centurion streamlining dated rather than awful, and again, streamlining was less important at 55mph than today's speeds.
Or perhaps I'm defending my own work by proxy. I too quote my mpg at 20mph slower that the highest legal speed I've seen of late (75 in Wyoming, yet I've bragged about getting 100mpg at 55) and while I didn't personally write it, my own 127mpg result in the 2011 Mid-Ohio Vetter Fuel Mileage Challenge (100 miles of mixed environment, including a short 70mph blast on the freeway) made at least one headline, and you had to read the article to find we were mostly just gently cruising on rural roads and had perfect weather for a mileage competition.
I don't post much on ecomodder nowadays. Maybe I'm thin skinned, but it seems like the meanies have taken over the asylum and I don't want to paint a target on myself. It's getting kinda cliquish, and folks that don't fit the mold get trashed for doing their own thing. This Centurion forum started well, with a technical discussion of the Centurion, then it drifted to accusations of "shenanigans" that seemed more about writing style than content, and now it's about the Volt.
Ken, if you dispute Riley's claims for the car, I'd like to hear about it, and I'm sure so would others. Are his figures "completely misleading" because they're wrong? Ragnarok thinks they're wrong ("I would not believe the high mileage on the Centurion because of it's aero"), I think they're likely pretty accurate; it might make for an interesting discussion--we could all give reasons for our opinions. There's plenty to talk about re the Centurion (the OP made a good start) but for folks that don't like its presentation and would rather talk about plug-in hybrids, couldn't you start a fresh PIH or Volt thread instead of hijacking this one?