vision-master wrote:Made sense in the 70's, created the entire imported car market people had been so sensitized to fuel prices. This is a good thing, as long as peak cheap oil keeps chugging along, we'll buy smaller cars, smaller cars need less fuel
2012 Honda Fit 4 cyl, 1.5 L, Manual 5-spd, Regular Gasoline -
33 gal highway. You mean to me me a small compact with 115 hp ONLY get's 33 gal highway.
Yup. Its horsepower requirement from the engine to maintain speed is not that different from cars with similar gas mileage, regardless of their engine displacement. Smaller engines only show fuel economy benefits under high loads. Cars with a similar CdA perform similarly with regard to fuel economy at the low loads used for highway cruising, regardless of horsepower or engine size.
The Opel Eco Speedster is an example of a real-world 112 horsepower car, comparable in power to the Honda Fit.
The Eco Speedster uses a 1.2L 4-cylinder turbodiesel, tops out at 160 mph, and corners like you would expect of a Lotus Elise(the chassis it uses). 94 mpg combined.
Yes.
94 mpgs combined.
0.20 drag coefficient, 15.2 sq ft frontal area, diesel engine, optimized gearing, LRR tires, and she's very minimalist in creature comforts weighing in at only 1500 lbs. Get rid of the carbon fiber to reduce cost, put in roll-up windows, and maybe have optional items like AC or a radio, keep the streamlining; there's the possibility of a marketable, aesthetically gorgeous car that weighs a few hundred pounds more and performs similarly to that eco speedster while costing less than a typical car due to its simplicity, and would easily out-perform cars costing three or four times as much money while simultaneously being miserly with regard to fuel usage.
Less is more.
The Eco Speedster illustrates a system-oriented design. Function dictates form, and not the other way around. This philosophy is every bit as applicable to a vehicle designed for different applications, such as hauling around a family with all of the creature comforts one is willing to pay for. Just don't throw the creature comforts all on a car as standard as an excuse to raise the price.
If the Chevrolet Corvette were a minimalist 2,400 lb mid-engined streamliner(hypothetically, 0.16 drag coefficient, 19 sq ft area), kept the 650 horsepower V8 of the ZR1, it could easily exceed 50 mpg highway, and its top speed would exceed 250 mph; 0-60 mph time would be somewhere around 2.5 seconds. Add another 50% to the fuel economy if it's turned into a diesel, with even better acceleration.
Less is more.
A vehicle should be built to handle abuse on a daily basis for decades on end, so that when it is well kept, it lasts indefinitely, and should be built to be repaired to like-new condition under any circumstances. Old diesel Mercedes from the W126 models and earlier are notorious for this. This doesn't add more than a few hundred pounds to a car at worst, and is as simple as using components rated for 350 horsepower in a 120 horsepower car. A million mile car is not something an industry wants when high product turnover keeps sales healthy; some sewing machine manufacturers learned this the hard way during the early 20th century.
Turnover also wastes resources and is highly inconvenient to the consumer.
Planned obsolescence is the problem. It is currently still the rule of the day.
Me? Never buying a new car unless it is something that meets the following criteria:
-Less than 2,500 lbs
-A power to weight ratio of no less than 200 hp/ton
-Mid or front engined, weight distribution of 40-50% front
-Either rear wheel drive or 4 wheel drive
-Less than 5 sq ft CdA
-Overbuilt with components rated to at least twice its horsepower and designed to tolerate constant abuse for years on end
-Geared for max theoretical top speed due to drag
-Roll cage
-Under $20,000
-Powerplant doesn't matter, although many bonus points if diesel or electric or a combination of the two
The less drag, the less weight, and the less horsepower, the more feasible the above is without any real compromise.
In the meantime, I have a 90% finished EV, two old turbodiesels, and a bicycle. Fuck this new car shit.
The unnecessary felling of a tree, perhaps the old growth of centuries, seems to me a crime little short of murder. ~Thomas Jefferson
