[rohrt]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Sidebar: Speaking of which....

I was just reading in the society of automotive engineers (SAE) member magazine about the most recent Supermileage competition held at the Eaton Proving Ground in Marshall Michigan.

They showed that the winning team, Quebec's Universite' Laval, won the event with an average of 1145 mpg.

If I remember correctly, back when I was doing this with GMI (in the early 1980's) the University of Saskatchewan dominated the event year after year with fuel enonomy numbers just over the 1000 mpg range.

So - thirty years later and the identical fuel economy numbers?

Perhaps there is only so much energy you can squeeze from a gallon of gas...

:shrug:

Back to topic -

K

Those competitions are interesting but far from any type of real world driving.

The competition should be hauling a family of 4 1200 miles in 16 hours.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by rohrt

Those competitions are interesting but far from any type of real world driving.

The competition should be hauling a family of 4 1200 miles in 16 hours.

C'mon. You don't think you could get 4 people in this?



True story time: back when we were doing this the minimum driver weight was 150 lbs.

We had one team member (happened to be my college room mate and best man in my wedding) weighed in about 149 lbs and a few ounces. We ballasted him down with all the pocket change we could muster.

Plus, we didn't let him pee until after he passed tech...



By the way, the prevailing strategy (then, and now it seems) was to accelerate up to a given speed, shut the engine off and coast (forever) until the desired minimum speed was reached. Repeat.

There was one team that attempted to run steady state at a given engine rpm but they weren't even competitive with a fuel economy in the 200 mpg range.

The bottom line is that you are not burning any gasoline when the engine is off. It becomes primarily an exercise in controlling mass and aerodynamics and reduced rolling resistance.

K

[hurryinhoosier62]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

C'mon. You don't think you could get 4 people in this?



True story time: back when we were doing this the minimum driver weight was 150 lbs.

We had one team member (happened to be my college room mate and best man in my wedding) weighed in about 149 lbs and a few ounces. We ballasted him down with all the pocket change we could muster.

Plus, we didn't let him pee until after he passed tech...



By the way, the prevailing strategy (then, and now it seems) was to accelerate up to a given speed, shut the engine off and coast (forever) until the desired minimum speed was reached. Repeat.

There was one team that attempted to run steady state at a given engine rpm but they weren't even competitive with a fuel economy in the 200 mpg range.

The bottom line is that you are not burning any gasoline when the engine is off. It becomes primarily an exercise in controlling mass and aerodynamics and reduced rolling resistance.

K

In reality, it wouldn't hold ONE of my big feet!