6/28/2005: Most economical car
 

http://cellar.org/2005/mosteconomicalcar.jpg

Thought it might be good to have this one, at a time when it looks like oil may be over $60/barrel soon.

In 7th grade I was taught the urban legend that the car companies had developed a carburetor that could do 50 miles per gallon (this was 1975, and 50 mpg was incredible), and were keeping it from the public. The teacher really believed the conspiracy theory. I believed it, too, because then I had been taught it by an actual school teacher. A few years later I learned that it was a legend and that we'd all been faked.

Well here it is... the entire Ananova story:

Swiss researchers have developed the world's most economical car that could circle the globe on only eight litres of fuel.

The Pac-Car uses hydrogen fuel cell technology and was developed by a team at the Swiss Federal Technical University headed by Professor Lino Guzzella.

He said the "car could drive around the earth only using eight litres of fuel", and that it could be ready for mass production in the next couple of years.

According to the back of my envelope, 1 earth per 8 liters is about 1000 miles per litre or about 250 miles per gallon. But it sure looks like they aren't hiding it, they're releasing photos of it and shooting for the market, etc. I guess the old legend really was false after all.

Go around the Earth with 8 liters? That's 2.11 gallons. The Earth is 24,900 miles around, so that's 11,800 mpg. With all due respect to these scientists, there is no way that is true.

Hmm...earth=24,000miles....ahh, I'd burn that envelope.

Y'know, there's diameter and then there's circumference, and one can look damn stupid mixing them up.

Ahem. Hydrogen fuel cell.

Not unleaded.

Well, I never trust Annanova. But A quick Google search finds this link to the home page of the swiss scientists. They are claiming a world record of 5385 km/l fuel efficiency which works out to 12,664 mpg.

12,664 mpg. Unbelievable. I literally can't believe it.

Oh, that's beautiful.
Guzzella
Guzzllah
(interpret through Boston accent)
Guzzler :lol:

The type of fuel is important. Cassini has gone pretty far on not very many liters of plutonium. Not that plutonium is usually measured in liters, but still. Also, Cassini doesn't have to deal with much friction...

Huh? You might as well have said titanium or silicon as plutonium, since none of them have anything to do with the propulsion of the vehicle.

Well, in the link I found, they claim:
Can't get much clearer than that. It's gasoline.

I'm still not sure I believe it. It's about 100 times greater than I would expect from an experimental car. I understand that fuel cell technology is a promising new technology, and that the "car" is just a bicycle shrouded in carbon fiber, but it's still amazing to me.

Oh, well. I guess I read too much into the fact that it's powered by plutoniuim - I guess just the electronics are plutonium powered, not the propulsion.

But the point still stands, even without the support of its example...

that is ok - in 7th grade i learned the legend of THE MOTHMAN. yep. from my science teacher. to this day i'm not sure if he really believed it or not.

I went to Catholic schools so I did not learn about the carburetor OR the Mothman.

I did see a show on TV (Fact or Fiction or some-such) and they said the gub'mint had a car that could go 200 miles/gallon and they are, of course, suppressing it. Damn gub'mint. I wish the X-files was still on. Now I have to get my news from Jon Stewart.*

(*Kidding!--sort of)

A little googling tells me that the "km/L" conversion is equivalent energy use, not an indication of actual gas usage. It's a pure-hydrogen engine.

http://www.google.com/search?biw=128...=Google+Search

http://www.imrt.ethz.ch/pac-car/

http://www.azom.com/details.asp?newsID=3197

I want one. And a hydrogen fueling station to go with it.

They are not supressing it. They are just releasing it 10mpg at a time.