Archives

Science Daily — A car wastes energy almost continuously. Whether it is running in first, second, or a higher gear, there is only one position of the accelerator that guarantees optimal performance. Accelerating a little less or a little bit more can cause considerable loss of energy. John Kessels has designed a way to save energy by enabling the car to achieve optimal engine performance more frequently. With a relatively small modification it is possible to reduce fuel consumption by 2.6%. Kessels obtained his doctorate from the Technical University Eindhoven (TU/e) on Wednesday February 14, 2007.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070228123151.htm

Toyota's already way ahead of that. Decoupling throttle
control from the user gives a serious advantage, and
recently I dug up this curve (http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/SAE-bsfc.gif) from an SAE paper that pretty
much tells it all. [This was the paper mentioned recently
on prius_technical_stuff...]
.
_H*

Ford increased the 2007 Focus 3 MPG with new programming that opens the "tumble flaps" earlier to reduce pumping loses, increase the EGR and timing. I've already started working on "back-fitting" that to my 2005. I'll just flash a new tune on the SCT "LiveWire"...