376.59 MPG Car Found In Museum (It Was Built In 1959)
Think you need a hybrid to get great mileage? Try a souped-down 1959 Opel T-1.
In another tribute to high-mileage car hacks, a man named Evan McMullen rediscovered a 1975 Guiness-World Record-Setting car that got 376.59 MPG.
It was wasting away in a museum in Florida:
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.
Unfortunately, that contest-winning mileage number occurred on a closed track at a steady 30 mph. Not exactly highway speeds. Nonetheless, it makes you wonder about the evolution of automobile manufacturing in the last 50 years:
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But McMullen’s biggest question is why? Why didn’t this technology find its way into the mainstream? Why did the car sit unremarked, unremembered for so long?
“If this is something they could do back in the 1970s, what happened?” he asked, poring over paperwork, including patents, for the car.
“Certainly in 34 years we could do something to make this work.”
In reality, it’s not that hard to get better mileage: drive slower, reduce weight, and increase aerodynamics. None of this seems to particularly interest Detroit, since better mileage tends to increase the amount of time people own their cars before upgrading.
But next time you shop for a new car, instead of upgrading, you might consider downgrading.
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SeattlePi.com (Feb. 20, 2008): Hybrids, meet your rival — it gets 376.59 mpg
Wow! I would LOVE a car like that. The majority of my driving is done on roads that are about 30mph anyway. It’s really sad that wasn’t technology anyone made a priority of developing further. If the auto industry had gone in that direction in the 70’s, think of where we could be now.
[...] Posts: 376.59 MPG Car Found In Museum (It Was Built In 1959) 340 mph Bullet “Car” Electric “Scuba Car” to Debut at Geneva Auto Show Comment on this [...]
[...] I was scanning the web and I noticed this: In reality, it’s not that hard to get better mileage: drive slower, reduce weight, and increase aerodynamics. None of this seems to particularly interest Detroit, since better mileage tends to increase the amount of time people own their cars before upgrading. [...]
Gas mileage like that isn’t profitable to big business which is typically controlled by the evil Illuminati…and Bush’s oil baron buddies, etc.
Top fixes to reduce your current fuel usage: Smaller car (dump SUV/CUV/Pickup trucks), base engine not performance, maintenance, and driving habits. If you go out and buy a new car you’re energy balance will go off as new steel is melted to make it.
It’s not the evil industrialists. Usually it’s a little ignorance on their part and trying to satisfy what consumers actually buy. Not until gas was $3-$4/gal did anyone talk about better fuel economy - they just bought trucks and more trucks and a few SUV’s (based on trucks)..Could’ave bought Saturns, Sunfires, Focuses, and Neons
Morons blame car manufacturers for not producing fuel efficient vehicles when they should look in the mirror or their own driveway. No one wants the small, underpowered cars required to get those numbers that is why car companies don’t build them.
Jim’s right. What’s more, if we didn’t have the US military doing “oil exploration” for big business, we’d be paying a true-market cost for the oil. Y’know, besides our tax dollars, civil liberties, diplomatic standing, and security. But if we were paying what gas should really cost, you can bet some more of us would be bussing and biking it.
Somebody should come up with these kind of cars…Entrepreneurs, do it!
Maybe this car couldn’t climb hills or something…
Get us just 200mpg and make it practical and safe , please!
I don’t get it. This isn’t “the onion”; why the fake news? 375 mpg is simply not possible without an extreme car - neither then, nor now. Why are you guys talking about it as if it were real?
I get so GD mad when people say the US public does not want under powered cars. I owned VW’s during the 60’s and 70’s and every Beetle got over 30 mpg. Power did not matter then and it doesn’t matter now. A Cheap reliable basic bare bones interior car is desperatly needed in the US. If they build it we will come…..