Opel P1 376 MPG!!!! in 1973!!!
 

I was cleaning op my car magazines till I came across a intresting article, which i forgat about.

It's about a amazing car a Opel Rekord Caravan from 1959 which compited in a fuel efficiency race by shell:confused:.
It's extremly hypermilled but still, with it's (modified) orginial engine it got a place in the Guinness book of World Records, becouse it got 376MPG!!
In 1973

Here more info about it.

Here a site which tells all about this amazing car:
Shell Opel

Here a documentery about fuel effeciency, it's starts in dutch but most of it is spoken in englisch:
De race om de auto van de toekomst (29 september 2008)

(Old) dutch artical about the car, it contains some technical data, wich i will summery's below:
Opel P1 1959 drove 376 mpg in 1973

-It's main featre (and that of my other fuel efficient cars) was it's fuel vaporizing system which alows the engine to burn all its fuel.
Thats the reason for all the isolation around the engine.

-Chassis, interior etc. was binned all that remains is a modyfied body.
Springs were removed, welded a subframe, lowered it (front 127mm) and converted the caravan body to a pickup.

-It's tranny was binned and replaced by a 2 speed sprocket driven one.

-Relocated the engine to the back, mainly for the room the vaporizing system took in.

-He used special rims with airplane tyres with 14atm for low rolling resistance (schame it's not road legal)

-Small 19mm scooter carb for a good fuelmixture with low revs.
-Old piston rings for lower friction losses.
-Shaved head 3,7mm to 9:1 (low nowwadays)
-Camshaft was advanced 30(crankshaft)degrees for better performance low down.
-Dubble walled inlet manifold.
-It sucked the air through a inclosed radiatorhousing, which warms the air to 104*Celcius
This resulted in a car with a rev range from 600 till 1500rpm with alot of torque.

Search that car here on EM, and learn the details of the scam.

Bwwahahaha, the "test" was a 14 mile run...

$425,000 for a piece of scrap? :eek: Good luck with that!

Oh sorry, i searched for the car on EM but apparently not good enough.
You meen this topic I assume?
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...past-9397.html

That's the one.

I saw this car at the Portland OR. swap meet 2 yrs. ago. Aside from the heated fuel, the rest of the car is very crude by today's standards.
I can appreciate Frank's disdain for the claims of this car, because its a typical crawling speed around a track #'s, instead of real life road driving.
The positive I gained from seeing it was the interest w copper tubing being used to heat the fuel to near flashpoint . I don't see how any of us average joe's could figure that out w/o blowing ourselves up!
I like the trike aspect, because legally, its much easier regulation wise, to manufacture and sell in the motorcycle class.
Regarding the chain drive in my climate, I would want to make an enclosed oil bath for it, or consider a belt drive.
I have always liked '55 Chevies, but its stock size and weight are a bit much for the future. My silly dream is to build a trike car; a baby '55 based on the wheelbase size of a basketcase '72 Honda AZ600 coupe I have. I would have fake light weight tire/wheels filling the rear wheelwells. The fake ones would turn as the car moves, but would be suspended slightly to legally not be touching the ground.
I would like the motor/trans to come from an '80's Honda V-twin motorcycle. It would sound almost like a Harley, and w maybe foam constructed body; maybe the completed "car" could weigh about 6-700#'s

For a moment lets separate hypermiling into two categories. Average speeds over 50 MPH, and average speeds under 25 MPH. Close to the EPA highway speed average and the city speed average.

When I read about someone getting 80 MPG, but the missing information is average speed, it's usually because the average speed is less than 25 MPH. I have driven 575 miles in one day averaging close to 55 MPH and at just over 70 MPG, in a car with an automatic transmission. That's about 10 hours on the road in one day, not 24 hours at 23MPH trying to get 96 MPG.

The solution for me is a motorcycle, which I can ride at normal traffic speeds and still get close to 80 MPG average. Maybe one day I will get some aero mods to the bike to get it to 100, with some sprocket changes and a riding style that minimises frontal area.

If I did all that and went 25 MPH I guess I could get 200 MPG, but to me it seems a little weird to drive or ride in such a way that a good bicyclist could just about match your average speed and use no fossil fuel.

regards
Mech