376 MPG Blast From the Past

[orange4boy]

It's still interesting to deconstruct. It just needs to be taken in context. It does not seem to be a hoax, just an oddball experiment in the right direction with unsubstantiated claims. Just like a lot of us here. (No disrespect intended)

Personal, I don't see why a chain drive is important. Chains are used in many vehicles, and were used on many cars. Part of the reason they're not used on cars anymore is because they suck for that application.

I bet it has no transmission and no differential. That's a whole lot of friction gone. Totally not doable on a conventional gas production car. It was tested and made just as far from real world vehicles as most of the MPG contests out there. (X-prize excluded)

Having said that, 376 mpg does seem very high. Perhaps the course it used ran on ley lines.

[gone-ot]

...but, what it DOES tell us is that pre-heating the fuel can coax more out of a gallon of gasoline.

...think about the "jet" analogy--jet engines become MORE efficient the hotter the intake air becomes.

...so, the "closer" the fuel is to vaporizing, the quicker it can do so, leading to better/more complete combustion.

...first, learn from the messenger...then, go ahead and shoot him!

[Rokeby]

I suspect the standard rear axle was replaced with the two near-centerline
wheels and chain drive as a weight saving measure.

It may not be relevant to this thread vis-a-vis extreme FE, but moving the rear
wheels so close together may have qualified the the vehicle as a three wheeler
-- that is to say a motorcycle -- under the regs/laws at the time.

How this might have helped in the FE effort is open to speculation.

[gone-ot]

...and, a motocycle chain is FAR lighter than a heavy, rotating drive shaft!

...anyone remember the early Honda 300/600 that had chain-drive? It was "outlawed" in USA and hasn't been seen since except in Honda museums.

[MetroMPG]

FYI, the "more complete combustion" and "fuel vaporization" issues are addressed cogently here:

Fuel saving - a professional engineer's view

The gains to be had from either are very small on a modern fuel injected engine in good tune. Improvements aren't impossible, but not on the scale of magic bullets.

[Frank Lee]

...but, what it DOES tell us is that pre-heating the fuel can coax more out of a gallon of gasoline.

It doesn't tell us that. Besides, carb'd engines are a different animal than injected.

That squiggly glass thing above the carb is their "gas tank". It is a laboratory heat exchanger. No doubt coolant goes through it.

Orange is right- no trans and the typical gear losses, just a clutch with outboard support bearings and a chain. May have reduced driveline losses 5 or 10%. However, if there was no free-wheel for the back sprocket that would suck a little bit for gliding.

It does have small frontal area. However the Cd is probably in pickup truck territory, unless the bottom is very smooth. My WAG for that is .40- .45. At the speeds they competed with it probably wasn't a deal killer.

There are many pics of this car online. The pics in this thread are post-"restoration". Originally the engine was covered in insulation too. Well, no doubt it was hardly ever running in competition. It needed all the heat it could get to stir up the volatiles in the crankcase so it could burn 'em. For sure it was burning more "energy input" than what came from the "gas tank".

It may not be relevant to this thread vis-a-vis extreme FE, but moving the rear wheels so close together may have qualified the the vehicle as a three wheeler -- that is to say a motorcycle -- under the regs/laws at the time.

It's totally not legal for the street anyway so fed/state regs/laws have nothing to do with it. Perhaps the Ralley rulebook said it had to have 4 wheels? Otherwise I'm sure they'd have used a single out back.


McMullen, owner, says the car was owned by Shell and modded by Shell engineers... then says this achievement was done "in someone's spare time in their garage". Which is it?

He asks why it's impossible to achieve something like that today. Perhaps he should look at today's Shell economy competitions?

He also says the Model T got 20 and we are hard pressed to do much better than that today. I would like to know what a "T" would get if run through the EPA test cycle. Or to make the comparison fair, what modern cars get at a steady 40 mph.

He says it weighs 2500 lbs- well, he did have an awful lot of trouble with numbers ('73 was 15? 25? 35? years ago?). That does not seem possible to me. That car is smaller (especially narrower and lighter, stock) than my Tempo and it's gutted besides. My Tempo weighs 2500. My WAG for the Opel's weight would be more like 1500, maybe even close to 1000 lbs. *Edit* Just found this wiki FWIW: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:J....ox/Opel_Rekord

General data: wheelbase 100, length 174.9, width 63.6, height 58.7 inches, curb weight 2010 - 2210 lb, top speed 74 - 82 mph.

So, yeah, "2500 lbs" my ***.

At least he admits the performance is NOT suitable for the street.

I'd like to see what fe "Tiny" McMullen would get in there!

P.S. No, wait, here's what McMullen says here:

Here's a car that was 20 years old at the time of the contest that was the project of a couple of guys in a garage," he said. "You can't tell me we can't do better than this with cars today."

More trouble with numbers! 1973 was NOT 20 years from 1959. And again with the homies in their garage.

[dcb]

Funny, I was rooting around for cda stuff and found this analysis/rejection of the very vehicle in question, Makes me think of Ernie Rogers a bit
Hemmings Auto Blogs » Blog Archive » Big Oil conspiracy! 376 mpg Opel uncovered!

[Frank Lee]

Good God, these guys that bought these cars really thought they were speed or ice racers??? More money than brains.

There's only about a thousand posts to go through- ugh. If you are referring to Raptoer's post of 8/19 at 5 am, well I think he wasn't quite awake yet.

[SVOboy]

Originally Posted by dcb

Funny, I was rooting around for cda stuff and found this analysis/rejection of the very vehicle in question, Makes me think of Ernie Rogers a bit
Hemmings Auto Blogs » Blog Archive » Big Oil conspiracy! 376 mpg Opel uncovered!

That's a good analysis. Maybe someone could figure out the formulas we need to make a spreadsheet/web tool to compute the possibility of certain vehicles getting certain fuel economy.

[RandomFact314]

too bad he will not chop that roof off and put a roof with a better angel and boat tail the rest... Although I'm not really sure if I believe it gets 300mpg