Corvettes?

[MetroMPG]

I know some of you have seen this already...

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...-avg-1128.html

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[bluetwo]

There it is! I had a feeling somebody had thought of something already.

Still I wonder what a gas engine could do if it had all the right advantages.

[some_other_dave]

I don't think it's aero or weight that is responsible for the Vette's decent highway MPG. It's the gearing; the C5 (I think it was) will cruise down the freeway at 60 MPH in top gear running something like 1400 RPM. That's good FE territory...

That's my theory, and I'm'a stickin' with it!

-soD

[bluetwo]

Originally Posted by some_other_dave

I don't think it's aero or weight that is responsible for the Vette's decent highway MPG. It's the gearing; the C5 (I think it was) will cruise down the freeway at 60 MPH in top gear running something like 1400 RPM. That's good FE territory...

That's my theory, and I'm'a stickin' with it!

-soD

I don't blame you for that because it makes sense to a degree, but Ford 150's will do the same thing if not run at an even lower RPM. The horrible aero of a full size pickup and nearly 4,000 lbs. of steel make it's fuel mileage drop like a rock.

[aerohead]

The opening shot of my TV show was a head shot of Pamela Anderson at the wheel of a Corvette,cruising down Pacific Coast Highway.She was doing talking points about road horsepower as the camera slowly pulled back finally to reveal a V-twin Briggs&Stratton riding lawnmower engine under the hood,as this was all the car needed for highway speeds.----------------- Well this was the TV show of my head back in the 90s.-------------- Since high school,when I was driving my Morris Minor 1000,I knew that one could bolt an Iron Duke 4-banger into any Corvette and have a "show-stopping" fuel-sipper.---- Will you be the 1st?

[bluetwo]

Originally Posted by aerohead

The opening shot of my TV show was a head shot of Pamela Anderson at the wheel of a Corvette,cruising down Pacific Coast Highway.She was doing talking points about road horsepower as the camera slowly pulled back finally to reveal a V-twin Briggs&Stratton riding lawnmower engine under the hood,as this was all the car needed for highway speeds.----------------- Well this was the TV show of my head back in the 90s.-------------- Since high school,when I was driving my Morris Minor 1000,I knew that one could bolt an Iron Duke 4-banger into any Corvette and have a "show-stopping" fuel-sipper.---- Will you be the 1st?

Holy crap that's awesome. I knew those V-twins made some big torque for the size but to move a car is pretty cool. I imagine it might have had some decent acceleration at highway speeds too. I have an SV659 motorbike and that little engine is seriously torquey.

I'd love to be the one to put a measly 4 cylinder in a Vette and of course the end result is it be very, very economical without looking like some kind of oddball science experiment. Maybe it'll happen one day.

[Christ]

I'm sort of in the market for a few things, basically whichever comes first affordably (my kind of affordable).

I'd love to have a 94'ish Corvette - C5, is it? The ones that still have the square-ish tail lights.

[bluetwo]

I just looked it up here: Chevrolet Corvette - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I can never remember the darn Vette generations anymore. I used to be able to tell you all about the engines and what set each year apart but that was years ago. I do think what we would need is a small diesel but the possibilities are quite abundant.

[Christ]

50-60 HP could propel the 'Vette comfortably at highway speeds, and still have enough power to "evade", should the need arise. I doubt it takes even 30 HP to keep the thing going 70 on a flat road, calm day, considering it only takes 25-35 to keep my Caravan going 65 MPH.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by bluetwo

I don't know if it's common knowledge or not but Corvettes CAN actually get really good fuel economy.

This of course depends on your standards for pretty good fuel economy. To me, 30 mpg or so highway seems pretty darned bad.

...a big part of the good MPG these cars get is due to the areodynamics of the car...

But the Corvettes aren't all that aerodynamic, with Cd values over 0.3 (depending on model). The aerodynamic engineering (as opposed to styling) that does go into the design is probably aimed more at creating downforce at speed, rather than reducing drag. They do get some advantage from having a fairly small cross-section area, so CdA is probably lower than most cars. But they're also pretty heavy.

If you want something similar, I'd start with a CRX (I got over 40 mpg with mine even the way I drove it :-)) or del Sol, a Miata, MR2...