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4 bags of groceries and 70mph in a headwind is asking a bit too much, for me at least. But that's purely personal preference and my own riding habits over the years. I'm ALL for the comfort, safety and fuel efficiency though.
To me, safety means my legs are free to swing out; as opposed to those Matsu/Bonneville feet holes or worse. I had to do that once in my life, motocross style. Hey, once is enough. I think I'm okay with having slots for the legs. If you do it right it should have minimal effect on drag.
The designs I came up with for my 125cc scooter do have me reclining, and may leave room for the groceries, but it's not a priority. When all is said and done, if it gets 70mph in a headwind, that'd be a nice bonus.
But I drive in Colorado, up into the mountains all the time. With my corolla, I can stay in 4th gear and go 60 the whole way, even with the hills (slight lie there. There's one or two hills in the course of 300 miles that I'll have to lower gears in). That's 5mph below the speed limit most of the way, but it saves me 2-3 gallons of fuel over 100 miles.
I could make the car go faster, but I simply don't want to. Being able to use cruise control for most of that is nice. 5th gear doesn't see much use for those trips, either. Overall, it's the safest and most economical way. I'd have to be lane hopping to go faster; and even then, they use pace cars in the winter to slow us down (but I mainly do this trip in the summer).
Oh I kind of went off on a ramble there. I really like what Vetter is doing, but I'll only think about participating if my vehicle just so happens to meet qualifications after it meets my own personal requirements.
You'd be surprised how much I can fit in the back of my whitewater kayak, so it would stand to reason that the grocery thing isn't out of the question. The speed thing; well, I hope someone achieves it with a gas-only vehicle (or even diesel) @470+ mpg and posts a how-to!
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