Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Mechanic
Drove the wifes Kia Sorento home yesterday from the DC area, most of the time the cruise was set at 69 MPH. Got home with the factory MPG gauge reading 33.3 MPG.
45 years ago I got that same mileage in my 59 Bug eye Sprite on average with a 998 cc engine and weighing just over 1000 pounds.
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Let's see now. Per some quick Googling, the (2014) Sorento weighs 4807 lbs, and has a cross-sectional area (width * height) of 4964 in^2. The Sprite is 1460 lbs and 2504 in^2. So 3 times the weight, twice the area, yet getting the same mpg? Must be some efficiency gains in the engine, no?
(The sad part, to me, is that this implies that you could build a Sprite equivalent today, and get 60+ mpg from it, yet nobody does.)
As for reliability of carbs vs EFI, yeah, if you are planning on surviving an EMP or similar, carbs win, but I would suggest you might have more pressing problems. Otherwise, I've lots of experience cranking & cranking & squirting starting fluid into carbs, trying to get them to start, then having them stall at idle. I've never had an EFI car that didn't start in about 2 seconds of cranking.