Launching a New MPG Video Series
 

I'm rolling the dice on a new video series. It echoes a lot of what's taken place on Ecomodder over the years and seeks to answer the question:

Is it possible to improve the fuel efficiency of an older car with simple aftermarket bolt-ons and proper maintenance? If so, to what degree?

I don't know if this will fly (or how high), but it's been sitting in my head for eons. The series is based on doing simple mods with as many different cars as possible. Changes will include: LRR tires, full synthetic fluid swap, lowering springs, bellypans, tire spats, OBDII display(s), possibly gearing. No snake oil. Aiming for a 10 to 20% improvement.

There are tens of thousands of Hurricane Sandy damaged cars sitting here in lots in NJ. I want to strip the tire spats off the newest ones before they get scrapped. (Borrow from a 2012 car and retrofit on a 2002.)

My big dream is to take it on the road and shoot video segments with a bunch of companies that are producing advanced renewable biofuels. This stuff doesn't make it on the evening news.

I hope you guys dig it. Fingers crossed we can make it happen.

Ain't Fuelin'! by Daniel Gray — Kickstarter

In my opinion, biofuel production is kind of boring. Doing "car review" type deals of other ecommoders vehicles is where it's at!

Great stuff ... I definitely want to shoot review segments. I've shot a bunch of alt fuel cars over the years, but have never shot anything ecomodded.

The biofuel stuff is pretty diverse these days. There's a company not far from here that's producing 93 octane synthetic gasoline from natural gas, switchgrass, and wood chips.

Banging the drum for the stretch run. The Kickstarter campaign winds up on Friday at 12:00 noon EST. Industry execs dig the idea, but I've only landed one corporate sponsor so far (Valvoline synthetic fluids). If we can't get it done, maybe it'll come back as a Top Gear episode one day ...

In this forum we just do it. You can start doing your stuff with no money and hope to get some later. In that case the quality of the videos is the key. My most polular driving video has gained 10000 views in one year. So there is not enough watchers even for free videos so its very hard to get people to pay something to watch a educational video on same topic. Of course its not the same if you are making some kind of comparisons etc.

I have had similar idea wondering in my head, but its too small to execute in Finland. Also I have too many projects going on at the moment anyway.

In short fuel is just too cheap at the moment to interest majority of people. So wait when fuel is more expensive.

I know, Vekke! I've lurked here for years. :)

The trick is to turn it into a fun series with good production values. One thing that made me take notice ... there is a bakery in Hoboken New Jersey, named Carlo's (across the river from New York City) ... huge lines of people wait there every day to buy cakes and cookies.

I never knew about it until two years ago. We drove by and I asked my family, "why are all those people waiting in line?"

"Oh, they're waiting to go into Carlo's," my daughter replied.

"What's that about?"

"Gee, Dad ... haven't you ever heard of the TV Show 'Cake Boss?"'

I hadn't ...

If they can make something as every day as a bakery popular with a 'reality' show, why not the idea of tweaking cars for more MPGs with simple maintenance? :)

My goal isn't to create a popular TV show ... its to help folks save a little bit each week, to reduce the amount of carbon that's entering the atmosphere, to help create some jobs, inform/entertain, and to have fun with the remaining years I have left on the planet. I can't wait anymore. I've put this project off for two years ...

Hello again... didn't realize you had a thread here too. Subscribed.

The pilot is a go. We squeaked past our funding goal last week.

Still not sure which vehicle we'll start with. I'm more than a bit apprehensive about buying a car with 225K, no matter how clean it appears to be. I need to see some maintenance records before proceeding. It might be amusing for folks if stuff blew up (if there was a big budget to waste), but we're starting out on a shoestring ...

There's a good chance we'll start with donor cars and the most basic maintenance/mods (synthetic fluids, LRR tires, possibly alloy wheels & lowering springs, definitely an OBDII device and scavenged tire spats).

Interest peaked. Subscribed!!!