The 65 mpg Ford the U.S. Can't Have

[VitaminG]

I guess I'm the only one here who wants the Shelby GT500 Mustang instead of the motorized shoebox then eh? I want the 500 hp Mustang not the zillion mpg contraptions they try to pass off as "cars"
Anyway, years ago a friend of mine ran a big block Chevy powered 70 Chevy pickup truck on Propane! He could run 13:1 compression on the street, make tons of power and zero emissions. Why aren't there more Propane or Natural Gas vehicles? aside from the large tanks they require seems easy enough to me. Or am I missing something here?
P.S. I don't think all the Chrysler turbine cars were crushed. Isn't one of them in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn?

quite a lot of cars over here have been converted to dual fuel or strictly LPG. Great if you want to run a big tank but don't want the big fuel bill. You see a lot of F100s with the tank in the tray. Unfortunately, a few years ago the federal government started offering rebates to anyone who had their car converted, so naturally all the gas conversion companies started jacking their prices up.

So let's say it might have cost you, for example, $1000 before rebate. The government offers to pay you $800 to help defray the cost and get more cars on gas. So the gas installers see an opportunity to get paid (apart from the increase in business the rebate encourages) and start charging $1300. But hey, it's still cheaper than it was before, right?

[jgcable]

I guess I'm the only one here who wants the Shelby GT500 Mustang instead of the motorized shoebox then eh? I want the 500 hp Mustang not the zillion mpg contraptions they try to pass off as "cars"
Anyway, years ago a friend of mine ran a big block Chevy powered 70 Chevy pickup truck on Propane! He could run 13:1 compression on the street, make tons of power and zero emissions. Why aren't there more Propane or Natural Gas vehicles? aside from the large tanks they require seems easy enough to me. Or am I missing something here?
P.S. I don't think all the Chrysler turbine cars were crushed. Isn't one of them in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn?

They were all crushed although I did hear that there might be 1 survivor. There is a video showing them being crushed and cubed.

[m2pmd70]

I wanted a Ford Ka after seeing this commercial. But we don't get them over here. I think one of the professors in the town I used to live in imported one tho. I used to glimpse it going in/out of the staff parking lot.

I "drive" a Metro, btw. The secret is to play your music obnoxiously loud so you can't hear all the squeaks, rattles and road noise. Seriously, it's been a good car for what it is. We affectionately refer to it as "the Shitbox." Mine is the 4 cylinder automatic and doesn't get the 50mpg everyone assumes, usually upper 20s or lower 30s. My bro has a 3cyl stick Metro & I don't think it's ever hit 40mpg in the flatlands where he lives. Poor thing wouldn't make the hills where I live with the AC on tho. heh

[Cygnus X1]

I've hit a fairly steady 26 MPG in the 96 Maxima without trying too hard.
This week I am challenging it...driving strictly posted speed limit (ok, 5 over most of the time). Coasting to stops, not applying any acceleration that I have to brake for turns,
and letting the car choose the path of least resistance when I am turning.

Most of all, watch the tach to see what it's really doing.
I keep a vacuum gauge on the Monte Carlo SS (gathering dust right now).
There is no better tool to indicate how much throttle you are wasting.

The Maxima has been great, if I can squeeze thirty MPG out of it, I will be very happy.
Things have regulated themselves a little with some people conserving more.
It's mostly supply and demand that drives this craziness.

[thetroy]

Yeah changing your driving habits can make a HUGE difference. I get 25-30 MPG if I drive conservatively and 15-20 if I drive normally. 10-15 if I'm a maniac.

[Cygnus X1]

I've said this too many times...my brother is one of the worst for it, too.
Race to the next light, slam the brakes, Jump start again...drive into corners too fast, hit the brakes to make the turn...you got it. He was getting 12 MPG out of his Pontiac Bonneville, and complained about it.

I ended up with that car and got 22 all day long. Drove it for 5 years after he declared it "dead".
And I never had to replace the brake pads. He went through 1 set a year.

[Spivonious]

Even highway speed can make a big difference. If I go 55-60 I get 37mpg; 65-70 and I get 32mpg.

[Cuthbert]

I was thinking the same thing stuka. "Dirt Cheap" That was probably back when the demand wasn't as high.

It wasn't that long ago I was watching the discovery channel and found out that there is a hell of a lot more energy in diesel than there is in gas. if that is the case, why didn't we have any diesel Z28s, vettes, mustangs or what ever? Engine components to expensive?

The story is like that.

In the late '90s FIAT R&D developed a revolutionary direct injection system for diesel called common rail: it worked with pressures above 1400 bars, therefore the combustion was better than traditional diesels, that were always regarded as noisy, slow and smoky engines.

The FIAT management sucked, they didn't realize that the idea was winning and they sold the patent to Bosch, who started to offer the common rail technology to anybody, not just FIAT, in a matter of...I think 5 years the % of diesel cars in Europe jumped from 5 to 50%, and they surpassed the number of petrol in 2002.

Of course, the oil companies understood that at the pumps the demand of expensive petrol was going down while the cheap diesel was required, therefore in order to save their percentage they started to rise the cost of diesel.

Result?Within 10 years the cost of diesel doubled in EU, beconing as expensive as petrol, while petrol increased of "just" 13%.

Anyway, having a diesel car is still convenient in EU, talking about the Alga GT, she's offered with two motorizations: a 1.9 JTD (last generation of common rail) and a 2.0 petrol direct injection...same performance, on 10 cars you find 9 diesels.

[Cuthbert]

I guess I'm the only one here who wants the Shelby GT500 Mustang instead of the motorized shoebox then eh? I want the 500 hp Mustang not the zillion mpg contraptions they try to pass off as "cars"
Anyway, years ago a friend of mine ran a big block Chevy powered 70 Chevy pickup truck on Propane! He could run 13:1 compression on the street, make tons of power and zero emissions. Why aren't there more Propane or Natural Gas vehicles? aside from the large tanks they require seems easy enough to me. Or am I missing something here?
P.S. I don't think all the Chrysler turbine cars were crushed. Isn't one of them in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn?

Actually the germans made impressive V8 diesels, like the new Audi R8...for the conversion with propane or GPL, like it's called here, in this country they became popular in the seventies at the time of the first oil crisis, and still they are, although a conversation with methane is more popular since GPL is liquified gas and kept at high pressure in special tanks that traditionally are kept in the place of the escort wheel.

Now they are also offering new cars with built in double system, methane/gasoline, called "bipower", expecially FIAT and VW, but usually we are talking about "cheap" cars for people who wants to stay on budget, I've never seen a Porsche or Ferrari bipower although it's possible to convert them.

[roodyrocker]

Most of all, watch the tach to see what it's really doing.
I keep a vacuum gauge on the Monte Carlo SS (gathering dust right now).
There is no better tool to indicate how much throttle you are wasting.

My Dad bought a 1982 Mercedes 380 SEC new which we still have. It has an "economy" gauge in it which is just a vaccum gauge and yes, as soon as you put the accelerator down you can see the needle move to the red zone.
BTW, I have an Autometer gauge in my 93 Mustang with Vortech supercharger. This vaccum gauge usually reads about 15 psi of BOOST!