I want to build a 100-mpg car (and I want it to look vintage)

[acparker]

Gasoline vapor engines only worked with straight run naptha. Cracked naptha will leave goop behind that tends to fill tanks and clog vital parts. Every miracle vapor system I have read about has failed because of that goop. The Pogue carburetor suffered the same fate as the industry switched to cracked naptha to meet increased demand for gasoline.

Paul Pantone, of GEET fame, had the same problems, which he turned into a parlor trick, filling his bubbler with coffee and soda, etc. with a little gasoline. The bubbler distilled the flammables with water vapor, which ran the engine, and the rest stayed behind. His reactor had some merit, as it created, when working properly, a plasma which could break down the flammables and water vapor.

The Navy funded research at MIT into the use of plasma (Plasmatron Fuel Reformer - a modified spark plug) to breakdown diesel to create a hydrogen rich gas that could improve combustion and emissions. (It could do the same to water vapor, with a catalyst.)

I am late to his thread so I am not aware of what you decided about a body shape. If you are still looking, consider the post WWII microcars, particularly the Messerschmitt Kabinenroller. Good luck.

[sgtlethargic]

I haven't settled on a body shape, or anything. I'm getting the RH Barnard book. I'm enjoying the new comments.

[racprops]

There is a LOT more power in Gasoline over Natural or Propane gasses.

With Gas we only need to get it into the vapor state.

And deliver it to the engine.

Rich

Originally Posted by jakobnev

That hypothesis does not fit observation.

Fuel efficiency has gone up since we stopped using carburetors.

Natural gas engines are not 3-5x more efficient than gasoline engines.

If you compress gas, then add heat by burning fuel in it, and expand it back to atmospheric pressure (allowing the gas to do work) then by the time you are back to atmospheric pressure, the gas still has excess heat in it. You cannot convert the energy in this heat to useful work, if a piston is all you have to work with. (if you pardon the pun)

[racprops]

I know of Poque carb, the Fish carb and the GEET device.

I am also aware of the junk in current gasolines and how unless you can convert 100% to vapor you will end up with goop.

Here is a interesting idea, I am told that you can convert 100% of todays fuel between 800 and 1200 degrees F.

Rich

Originally Posted by acparker

Gasoline vapor engines only worked with straight run naptha. Cracked naptha will leave goop behind that tends to fill tanks and clog vital parts. Every miracle vapor system I have read about has failed because of that goop. The Pogue carburetor suffered the same fate as the industry switched to cracked naptha to meet increased demand for gasoline.

Paul Pantone, of GEET fame, had the same problems, which he turned into a parlor trick, filling his bubbler with coffee and soda, etc. with a little gasoline. The bubbler distilled the flammables with water vapor, which ran the engine, and the rest stayed behind. His reactor had some merit, as it created, when working properly, a plasma which could break down the flammables and water vapor.

The Navy funded research at MIT into the use of plasma (Plasmatron Fuel Reformer - a modified spark plug) to breakdown diesel to create a hydrogen rich gas that could improve combustion and emissions. (It could do the same to water vapor, with a catalyst.)

I am late to his thread so I am not aware of what you decided about a body shape. If you are still looking, consider the post WWII microcars, particularly the Messerschmitt Kabinenroller. Good luck.

[sgtlethargic]

Here's an example of something I'm considering, today. This is a Dooling Frog tether car. I already have a few old beam axles. I would fair the front wheels and figure out some crash protection, such as side crash bars.

[racprops]

And "Fuel efficiency has gone up since we stopped using carburetors." well FI is better controlled, and even keeping the A/F ratio at 14:1 is still better controlled than any carb, and PCMs are much better at controlling timing as well.

And add in how almost all cars now have overdrive and there is your improved MPG.

Rich

[freebeard]

Here's an example of something I'm considering, today.

Ford axles or something other? Buggy springs or torsion bars or air bags?

How do you propose to fabricate the body? Egg crate male form? I think one could cut darts in flat sheets and butt-weld them to pull it into a specified shape without a form.



This design uses a faired-in front axle. I imagined it with Edison2's in wheel-suspension.


https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/a...n2-vlc-4-0.jpg

With a solid front axle and radius arms, it could have corrugated rubber boots. Free-standing front wheels have a big advantage in the 40%-offset front end collision test.

[sgtlethargic]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Ford axles or something other? Buggy springs or torsion bars or air bags?

I have a '37 Ford front end and a couple other beam axles of the era that were used for trailer axles.

How do you propose to fabricate the body?

By welding steel that I shape and/or that's already shaped, such as body parts from cars.

This design uses a faired-in front axle. I imagined it with Edison2's in wheel-suspension.

Too fancy.

With a solid front axle and radius arms, it could have corrugated rubber boots.

What and what for?

Free-standing front wheels have a big advantage in the 40%-offset front end collision test.

That sounds good.

----

I like the other geodesic one you post that has a greenhouse.

[freebeard]

1937 Ford would be the one year only tube axle. Racer's found that the round axle and the I-beam with lightening holes had similar drag.

By welding steel that I shape and/or that's already shaped, such as body parts from cars.

Pie cuts. It's surprising how far you have to cut to get a smooth curve. Curved edges instead of straight ones. (Can't find an example pic) The best VW top chops have the B-pillar cut a fraction of an inch less than the A and C-pillars. This forces the B-pillar into a better curve.

Like a drive axle boot or an articulated bus. The axle experiences pitch and roll, the radius rods constrain yaw. Fillets are much better than gaping holes.

I like the other geodesic one you post that has a greenhouse.

It was supposed to have a similar windscreen, that was a Gurney bump for your head to bounce into. I haven't posted these in a while. They date from mid-1990s:




Here's a Westergard-style Messerschmitt:

[sgtlethargic]

Richter Special streamliner tether car: