376.59 mpg Opel Found

[Chuck]

...the little 59' Opel had been bought by the France family, owners of NASCAR, and gifted to the museum at Talladega raceway.

Seattle Post Intelligencer - Feb. 20, 2008

Even allowing for mods that would not be street legal, it proves getting 100mpg+ all the time on public roads is definitely doable -- Ed.

Finally something to wipe the smug off you hybrid owners, you high-mileage acolytes, you global-cooling zealots who wash your Priuses (Prii?) with graywater while wearing reclaimed plastic fleece and hemp undies.

Don't choke on your organic soy-double-decaf-fair-trade-carbon-neutral macchiato, but how does 376.59 miles per gallon sound? Makes your Honda Civic hybrid look Hummeresque, doesn't it?

That number doesn't come from some manta ray-shaped, wind tunnel-vetted carbon fiber space car. No, it's from a chop-top, steel-frame 1959 Opel T-1 (think melting jelly bean, but uglier). And the record was set in 1973 in a contest sponsored by Shell Oil Co…[Read More]

[Vooch]

kinda hammers Detroit's crybaby whining about CAFE standards doesn't it ?

[pumaman]

Interesting, but was it necessary to bash hybrid owners to get the readers attention? It's not their fault that there aren't cars with higher FE available.

[vtec-e]

Originally Posted by pumaman

Interesting, but was it necessary to bash hybrid owners to get the readers attention? It's not their fault that there aren't cars with higher FE available.

Exactly. Its like they are rubbing our noses in it. This technology was tried and proven many years ago as shown with this car. And how far have we come since then? How do we get the manufacturers to make cars with this kind of mileage again? Picket outside their door?? Mass Disobedience?? (If there is one phrase the govts of the world fear its Mass Disobedience)
Sorry to be so militant about it but i'm beggining to wonder if anything less will work.

ollie

[Right Lane Cruiser]

Unfortunately for us, it looks as though someone new is going to have to come along and show everyone up. The problem is that the cost of doing so is prohibitively high. Assuming it could be done though, can you imagine what sorts of vehicles a company started by a core group of CleanMPG hypermilers would produce?

Thanks for adding your comments from the Emerald Isle, Ollie -- it sure is nice to have some input from over there!

[Euroford]

What a fantastic car!!

I will say though that the first couple of sentences in the article almost turned me off of reading it. Might have to send the author an email...

Still, it proves that ultra high mileage can be accomplished, even with a shoebox on wheels. Wonder how much of the mileage number was a direct result of the driver/driving style? Obviously @ 30mph aerodynamics don't play a huge roll.

Cheers,
Dave

[friedlbug]

Something still doesn't add up here. OK, so they basically made it a three-wheeler on a chain drive. That doesn't account for 376 MPG. Any motorcycle out there has to weigh the same or less and only runs on two wheels. So the 300+MPG difference between an efficient motorcycle running at a steady 30MPH and this thing is lean heated gas vapor? Lean heated gas vapor is more efficient than today's direct injection? Still not adding up.

[kwj]

I question the ability of any "nearly stock" ICE getting such high mileage, they just aren't that efficient. Now to the car: no back seat ever possible because of engine position. Try changing a rear tire on that baby! Why no seat belt (and by the way, have you ever seen such a comfortable seat like that outside of your high school cafeteria?). Crumple zones? Nah. Energy absorbing steering column? Nah. Air Bags? Nah, Nah, Nah. I owned motocycles. Chain drives are problematic. You must grease them, adjust them, align them, and replace them far more frequently than a drive shaft. Does that engine placement threaten a passenger? Does it put all the weight on one side of the vehicle? How would that handle in a hard right turn? Still, though, it is impressive

[Right Lane Cruiser]

That's the rub, isn't it? This car squeezed out that kind of mileage decades ago, but it wasn't practical. I seem to recall that at one of the latest mileage challenges some guys put together a single occupant vehicle that would travel darn close to 1000mi on a single gallon of fuel -- but that wasn't practical either.

Extremes are interesting, but the limitations are too restricting for that sort of rarefied efficiency -- at the moment. We have to just keep pushing and we'll get there eventually. I still think that 100mpg+ shouldn't be that hard to attain with some effort and research in a reliable, flexible, and practical vehicle.

[Jimmy]

Actually there is a highway in the mountains of Eastern Slobotany that has a downhill run of 376.59 miles. Rumors have it that the Opal was tested there. ;>)