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Can Your Car Get 1,700 MPG?
Xaroth writes "Given all the hubbub over EPA mileage ratings, I'm a little surprised that this one hasn't come up earlier. SAE apparently holds a contest each year to encourage students to design single-person, fuel-efficient vehicles. This year's winner achieved 1,747.4 MPG, with the press release that tipped me off pointing out that third got a 'measly' 1,194. There are more details on the competition over at SAE's site about the competition. Now, if only they could make these street-legal..." However, even the winner has nothing on top entries we mentioned in Shell's competition a few years back.
" People certainly took notice of our performance this year. Achieving over 1,000 mpg is quite an accomplishment, especially for the first year,"
Um, no they didn't. Your toothpick and styrofoam "car" averaged 15mph and weighed a paltry 80lbs doing nothing but ovals. Maybe you're busting out cartwheels in academic la-la land, but out in the real world where people actually have to break, accelerate, turn, drive uphill, downhill in traffic with air conditioning, heating, other passengers and groceries, it means JACK SHIT. Their testing parameters are so far removed from reality that practical application isn't even a possibility, which makes this an even larger excercise in absurdity.
No, my car can't get 1,194 miles to the gallon, and there is a good reason why-- It's not limited to being eight feet long, 26 inches wide and weighed approximately 80 pounds running soley along a six laps proving ground (9.6 miles) while maintaining a minimum average speed of 15 miles per hour.
If this were a step foward, I'd be behind them all the way, but it's nothing but engineering masturbation-- Neato to accomplish but utterly fucking useless.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
1700 MPG!! thats alot of porn!!!
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oh really there is something else than the metric system used?
and uhh some people use , like we use
weird....
Don't worry. Don't worry. Bush is changing that right now. We are paying $2.30 for a gallon, at this rate of increase no SUVs will be around years from now. We should hit $3.00 a galloon soon, and the middle-east folks + Bush folks are laughing their asses off.
Silly you. You have not successfully deciphered the envirowacko mindset yet.
The answer, of course, is to force people to live closer to where they work. (Talk to an envirowacko long enough, and the word "make" or "force" always comes up). But, hey, it's all for the greater good, so stand in line, pal. Your federal fuel representative will stamp your gasoline purchase permit presently. After he inspects your car to make sure that it is on the list of federally approved vehicles.
But never fear, the socially conscious on slash dot will make sure that RFID tags never track your personal information.
You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
Jesus christ, you need to get laid.
After reading your comment I tried to figure out what your point was. I don't think there is one. It sounds like you are angry with the world and you have all but given up.
"Damned if you do. Damned if you don't." is your attitude.
Fuel cells are only batteries. The theoritical best is getting back what you put in them. Even assumming a 99% efficiency you'll still be running off how efficient the original power source was....Since about 75% of the country's electricity is fossil fuels, and heat is usually generated with fossil fuels or electricity using hydrogen doesn't solve anything.
That's the point. And you missed it. Right now we have millions of small inefficient engines. If we can create cars that use a better fuel source we can focus on being more environmentally friendly in creating that source. A large plant that uses fossil fuels will be much more efficient than the engines in our cars. Solar or wind energy really isn't an option to power our cars, but it would be perfect for charging fuel cells.
I'm truly ashamed for people who think that hydrogen fuel cells will solve all of the world's fossil fuel problems. Sure, hydrogen fuel cells will make for extremely low exhaust cars, longer laptop battery life, etc, but they won't solve the fossil fuel crisis.
Do you have a gas powered generator for your house? Most people don't. Some of us also live in very green citys. Citys that get a lot of their power from water, wind, or nuclear power plants. Some even SELL excess energy. This energy could now be used for our vehicles. Vehicles account for most of our air pollution and fossil fuel consumption.
It would have a SIGNIFICANT affect. I would even go so far as to say it "would solve the fossil fuel problem." (Not to say that we would stop using fossil fuels. I don't see the need to completely stop)
Using a hydrogen fuel cell car is almost exactly like using a hybrid motor. The only differnce being in the type of battery, and where the battery gets its energy reserve from.
You fucking moron. God damn you are so stupid. How can you believe this? That's like saying a gas powered engine "is almost like an ultra green hybrid engine because it comes from _fossil_ fuels. The energy had to come from somewhere. It came from dead plants! Those dead plants harvested energy natually. And what is even better is that the plants were already dead! We didn't have to kill any plants to harvest this energy!"
Using a hydrogen fuel cell car is almost exactly like using a hybrid motor. The only differnce being...
That they are not "almost exactly like" at all!
Ten years from now I don't want to be seeing a world where 10% of the automobiles run on fuel cells, 15% are hybrids, and 75% are SUVs that are exempt from fuel efficiency standars. Stop the madness now.
This is what stumped me. What DO you fucking want to see? I don't want to see SUVs exempt from fuel efficiency standards _today_. Fuel cells will be more efficient than hybrids, that's common sense.
But all your post does is tell everyone that they are stupid for thinking anything.
Fuel cells are the first step. Nuclear energy won't do us shit if we don't have the vehicles to take advantage of that. And that is why you are a fucking moron.
>but I bet if you had to run to work everyday, you wouldn't be living 25km away...
And I bet if everyone were to do that, we'd have to build mile high skyscrapers all over the place and ruin any sort of beaty the city ever had. Oh, and walking up 200 flights of stairs can't be good for you either.
The idea won't work unless we kill, say, 75% of the earth's population. Then it might be workable.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC