Possible to make/mod a 200 MPG highway cruiser?

[DifferentPointofView]

and diesel has lower end torque, so you would keep the vehicle in motion with a lower engine speed, so you could run a higher last gear at around 1700 at 60 or so.

[roflwaffle]

Low end peak torque depends more on displacement/cam than anything else, and gassers tend to have better air utilization rates than diesels so they can make more peak torque down low all things being equal.

[DifferentPointofView]

you still benefit from a diesel than gas because a diesel has no throttle plate

[roflwaffle]

Gas has no throttling at peak efficiency/torque anyway, which is what's needed for 200mpg@65mph in even a small car.

[bestmapman]

Next question:

It looks like the priorities would be

Aerodynamics
transmission
powerplant

Lets talk aeroeynamics first

Assuming that our base vehicle is a 96+ geo metro how would you mod it aerodynamically? Sky is the limit.

[Silveredwings]

Half width, half height, tandom 2-seat, elongated teardrop overall shape, no exterior mirrors or doorhandles, fully faired skinny wheels with smooth fillets to transition right angles to the body.

[roflwaffle]

A halving of reference are alone should put the vehicle within the 200mpg figure w/ a modest boat tail, something like that may be capable of breaking into the 300mpg arena w/ a steady state cruise.

[MetroMPG]

Something shaped approximately like the Jet Car, or VW 1L car.



This was made with Gen1 smart car (diesel) running gear.

For reference, this vehicle is capable of about 100 mpg (US) at about 100 km/h average speed.

[bestmapman]

Has anyone thought of fitting an aircraft canopy to a mod. Here is link to canopies.

aircraft canopies

Based on the above, a narrowed Geo fitted with one on these canopies could be awesome.

[Who]

For a simple shape, I like the idea of a split down the center ice cream cone from the low beltline up and then vertical slabbed below that with 3 wheels - tadpole styled. Rear direct drive at speed on the highway, hub motors up front that have no drag at speed for accel/decel.

I just don't know how aero the shape would be. The ice cream cone itself is extremely aero so whatever affect the vertical sides would have is the big question but it would keep it simple to fabricate.