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user removed · 07-27-2014, 06:28 PM

My "crazy project" began without me even knowing it 44 years ago when I read about an Opel station wagon getting 125 MPG while averaging 26 MPH using P&G (engine off).

The only modifications to an otherwise stock car were radial tires and a throttle limiter and disabled secondaries (vacuum operated).

Pulse to 45 in 3rd gear, shut off the engine, rinse and repeat, and you have 125 MPG. The year is 1970 and gas is 32 cents a gallon.

Fast forward to 1999. I'm playing an online game called Red Baron 3D. A bunch of gamers meet at Old Rheinbeck Aerodrome in New York. Looking at a rotary aircraft engine from WW1 a spark of inspiration comes to me. Using the rotary engine as a power source, knowing the crankshaft is fixed, if you could adjust the displacement by changing the position of the connecting rod journal, while the engine is running, you could make the stroke nothing and the engine would become a fairly large flywheel, capable of storing energy and reapplying it for future acceleration events.

I finally had a solution to the 1970 question of, How can you operate the car in normal traffic conditions while obtaining the mileage of that Opel wagon at 125 MPG, or at least very close to it?

I'll post further shortly.

regards
Mech

07-27-2014, 06:28 PM	#72 (permalink)
user removed Master EcoModder Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 5,927 Thanks: 877 Thanked 2,024 Times in 1,304 Posts	My "crazy project" began without me even knowing it 44 years ago when I read about an Opel station wagon getting 125 MPG while averaging 26 MPH using P&G (engine off). The only modifications to an otherwise stock car were radial tires and a throttle limiter and disabled secondaries (vacuum operated). Pulse to 45 in 3rd gear, shut off the engine, rinse and repeat, and you have 125 MPG. The year is 1970 and gas is 32 cents a gallon. Fast forward to 1999. I'm playing an online game called Red Baron 3D. A bunch of gamers meet at Old Rheinbeck Aerodrome in New York. Looking at a rotary aircraft engine from WW1 a spark of inspiration comes to me. Using the rotary engine as a power source, knowing the crankshaft is fixed, if you could adjust the displacement by changing the position of the connecting rod journal, while the engine is running, you could make the stroke nothing and the engine would become a fairly large flywheel, capable of storing energy and reapplying it for future acceleration events. I finally had a solution to the 1970 question of, How can you operate the car in normal traffic conditions while obtaining the mileage of that Opel wagon at 125 MPG, or at least very close to it? I'll post further shortly. regards Mech Last edited by user removed; 07-27-2014 at 06:46 PM..