[Fat Charlie]

I had read a magazine article once that casually mentioned it, but I never examined it.

For acceleration it's about power and weight. My car, with a curb weight of 3355 pounds and 250 hp has 13.42 pounds per hp. After I plant my 200 pounds in the driver's seat, each of those poor horses now has to push 14.22 pounds off the line. I'd need to add 15 hp worth of cold air intakes and ricer decals to bring the lb/hp back down to 13.42 again- or I could find 200 pounds worth of interior trim to get rid of. So for accelerating my car, 100 pounds is more like 7.5 hp. On the sporty things that most magazines like to review, 10 or 15 hp per 100 pounds shouldn't be all that unreasonable to see.

Anyhoo, the brisk acceleration that you want in your pulse & glide or stop & go can be more efficiently acconplished by reducing the weight that you are accelerating.

I like power seats because they have more than just a few notches to choose from. Of course they're heavier and if something breaks then they're obscenely expensive.