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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Ecoscraps: “376 MPG in 1973!”
Ecolocalizer: “376 MPG Car Find New Home”
SeattlePi.com (Feb. 20, 2008): Hybrids, meet your rival — it gets 376.59 mpg
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March 3rd, 2008 at 3:18 pm
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.
March 11th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
[...] 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 [...]
March 13th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
[...] 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. [...]
March 25th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
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.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
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
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:45 am
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.
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:37 pm
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.
May 15th, 2008 at 6:10 am
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!
May 30th, 2008 at 8:29 am
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?
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:17 pm
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…..
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:41 pm
John,
It’s possible, just slow as hell.
I strive for 36-37 combined in my HHR, and I risk making people mad by taking off a little slow. I’m happy with the MPG for now, but I wish others would do the same. I increase my mileage by 25% by taking off slower and coasting when I can (I have a clutch) and I still keep up with traffic. If everyone did it, we could reduce our consumption and in a TRUE free market, that should make prices go down.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Trains run on diesel, but the diesel creates electricity to power the wheels. This makes them much more efficient. I think that will be an alternative powertrain in the very near future. GM is promising a car in a few years that is a plug-in, all-electric, but it has an onboard generator in case you need to go further than your charge will take you.
I agree in principle with JS. Americans haven’t wanted the efficient cars. In a consumer driven economy, the consumers must take most of the blame. Not many people were buying the little VW diesels or the honda hybrids when gas was a buck and a quarter a gallon.
June 4th, 2008 at 3:09 am
HEY JOHN,SOUNDS LIKE YOUR WORKING WITH THE OIL COMPS. GOOGLE TOM OGLE & HIS 100 MPG. FORD GALAXIE. CIRCA 1970s EL PASO TEXAS. THEY HEATED THE GASOLINE TO VAPOR, & GOT A COMPLETE BURN. THIS CARS IN THE RECORD BOOKS. BUT I GUESS GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS IS WRONG TOO! 3000 MPG, NO It WASNT A CAR, MORE LIKE A TORPEDO, BUT IT STILL GOT 3000 MPG. SEE FOR YOURSELF THEN TELL THE WORLD GUINNESS IS A HOAX. GET YOUR LAWYERS READY!
June 17th, 2008 at 5:35 am
It is a simple fact America needs to SLOW DOWN. That is the easiest way to pick up 10 or 15 percent or more efficiency in a gallon of gas by simply driving slower..The American public seems to be oblivious to this simple reality…Everyone is in a big hurry to get somewhere Fast when it’s really so unnecessary. They could easly allow for an arrival a few minutes later..This agressive rushing/tailgating is hostile unnerving practice we need to scrap immediately Will it happen? Probably not! The impatient American driver has his/her head up their A–
June 20th, 2008 at 7:08 am
After 28 mph 80% of energy goes to combat wind resistance not increase speed. You will spend 25% more for fuel running at 75 rather than at 60. A taller highway gear or taller tire aspect ratios on your tire sizes helps in steady state driving. Belly pans to tidy up the airflow under the car helps and you almost never see it done. Rear fender skirts help. Rock hard tires decrease rolling resistance. My van has 10 ply Michelins and they are designed to hold 80 PSI! Guess where I run them? When I shift to neutral at highway speeds anticipating a stop ahead it takes a long tome to slow despite it’s large size. Get creative with aerodynamics. Strip the weight. Salt flat tires can be run rock hard. They come with a concave profile that straightens out with the high pressure they are designed to run with! Low restriction air filters and exhaust systems are worth a good bit decreasing the pressure differentials that eventually wind up on top of the pistons in your engine. High static compression yeilds better efficency. Deck your block or mill your heads. Aftermarket fuel injection controlers can be brought to bare. Some engines are happy with 17:1 air fuel ratios instead of 14.7:1 A/f at steady state driving. I saw a guy improve his Dakota pick up’s mileage by 40% using some of this. 50cc scooters get 125 mpg.
June 24th, 2008 at 12:51 am
i got a 1962 ford car that gets 33mpg in town.
June 26th, 2008 at 8:03 am
The engine uses more energy for scavenging the cylinders and compressing air/gas mixture. The flywheel is a point where energy can be stored, but a mechanism must be developed to transfer this energy in a prudent way. The gyration dynamics must be looked into, where two fly wheels run in opposing directions. Also the DAF variable power transmission should be looked into over again. The transmission belt was the weakest link [at the time] but with new materials [PUs]and transmission surfaces without [gear teeth] are a reality. The pneumatic tyre can be improved upon, but who is interested? Can you name 10 engineers [innovative] of the calibre of a the Czech national Porschek. It took 50 years to instal AC systems into the automobile, for what reason I do not know, when push bikes had alternators for as long.
The steering geometry in modern cars are awful. The new cars are a fruit salad.
June 27th, 2008 at 3:50 am
It’s interesting how mainstream media is completely silent every time a car like this comes along.
Running a motor on vapor is a good start. That’s stuff from early 1900. Force air though a stone on the bottom of a self filling tank and the small bubbles will vaporise the fuel.
But say you take water and some electricity, then you make a hydrogen/oxygen/water soup. If you combust that it will turn right back to water.
The interesting part is that the exhaust will contain oxygen. So if you mix a little bit of the soup with the petroleum fuel vapor the vapor will have extra oxygen available for it to burn.
Then stick a heat exchanger onto the exhaust so that the fuel is preheated before it goes into the cylinder.
Can use the heat exchanger as a plasma reaction.
Pantone Reactor Equipped Lawn Mower
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5238596150388648518
YouTube – Waterauto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FA9wiMkXwE
My car design doesn’t use any fuel.
http://wind-car.go-here.nl
Not even Pepsi.
July 26th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Really Jim? Nobody will buy a car that gets good mileage? You better tell that to those people who sign up for the several months long waiting list that one has to get on in order to buy a new Toyota Prius.
In European countrys they sell cars that get extraordinary gas mileage. But we cannot get them in the U.S. Hmmm?
September 23rd, 2008 at 5:49 pm
faked – image is not real. The results of high mileage are fake too.
October 5th, 2008 at 2:04 am
If it truly does get a high gas millage why don’t we use the design today? Its not that I am a skeptic I would just like to have something be used if it works.
November 4th, 2008 at 2:53 am
Youd think he would have gotten some more information about the technology that was used in the car. I mean we might be able to reproduce the same results for ourselves if someone else did it, why not? Where can we get the real story here?
November 4th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
think if everyone had small cars there would be no problem crashing because the cars are so light and small it might even be fun
November 29th, 2008 at 6:08 am
Interesting post. Does anyone know if HHO technology could replace oil?
December 18th, 2008 at 5:18 am
At 54 I have own many vehicles some good some not so good. I was proud of owning my U.S. or Canadian built car. Now I find that many people I know own an import. It is time to go back and build a fuel efficiant car that is in the top 3 for fuel economy and price. GM, Ford, and Chrysler this a challange but to be back on top would be great for future confidence. Make us proud again about the vehicle we have in our drive way. Thank you, Trevor Howard
December 18th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
One thing that the conspiracy folks might want to keep in mind is that even if the evil Automaker-Oil Company conspiracy prevents the production of reliable, affordable cars that get hundreds of miles per gallon in the United States (and Europe where enlightened progressives are ground beneath the iron heel of George Bush’s all encompassing Leviathan power) don’t you think that there are some places on earth where they are not yet controlled by the octopus mammon of Wall Street?
Why don’t the Chinese make cars that get hundred miles per gallon? They have the engineering horsepower. They import massive quantities of petroleum. Petroleum importation is one of their biggest expenses and one of their biggest strategic vulnerabilities.
How come somebody like George Soros doesn’t bankroll production of a car like that in order to drive the price of oil down so that he can rake in big bucks in the economic chaos that results?
Oh, that’s right. I forgot. For a conspiracy buff, lack of evidence is proof of how widespread and pernicious the conspiracy actually is since it can hide so well.
January 16th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
There’s all kinds of people, and all kinds of reasons to buy cars.
Volvo buyers want safety
BMW buyers want handling
Porsche owners want speed
MB owners want snob appeal, etc.
There’s lots and lots of people who will buy a car that pollutes less and gets great fuel mileage. That’s why Prius is sold out in some urban areas.
Personally, I’m waiting for the air car from Tata. I’ve got solar panels already and I plan on letting old sol fill my tanks for me while I drive for free.
I’ll keep my Chevy for long trips.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
The trouble is the BIG OIL bought up the patents and let them rot on the shelf. My grandfather told me a story of a friend that worked at Standard Oil; he was able to confirm at least one vehicle back in the day could get excellent fuel mileage (over 200 mpg) – It was carburetor based and would easily go from east coast to west, or vise verse, on a single tank of gasoline. Trouble is that Standard Oil bought the patents and put them on a shelf. Ya always give some doubt when an old timer tells you a story like that (especially since he told me that 15 years ago) but looks like he was probably right.
October 4th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
This is not a car you would drive around though, it would be gutted for weight, and there would be no braking or hill climbing involved. There would only be one period of acceleration, too, at the beginning.
A regular car taken to a track and driven at a constant 30mph will wow you with its fuel efficiency too!
October 4th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
“The trouble is the BIG OIL bought up the patents and let them rot on the shelf. ”
Well, what are the patent numbers? Let’s see some evidence.
October 5th, 2009 at 6:03 am
Is it just me or do the lights and grill on that car look just like Totoro when he is surprised.
November 10th, 2009 at 2:32 am
Given that the oil companies are obviously in cahoots with the US car companies and since at least half of Americans want high mpg cars…
The solution is simply to read what we can and implement what we find…then use the internet to distribute the information at low per unit cost.
There is a good profit to be made from the “squeeze more money from the dumb turnips” mentality.
I know that the Peugeot Partner minivan I drove in EU this last summer (w 200,000 km on the clock) got 50 mpg with it’s diesel engine, so there is no way I’ll believe either that the US cannot get double the mileage of current production or that we want gas hogs powermonger cars.
These are just lies foisted on us by “big advertizing” and their representatives who have just checked in on this web site saying that Americans don’t want high mpg. LIES and coverups for 20x-50x profits are now normal for both big oil, big medicine, and “terrorist” protection wars.
Food biz still lives on 10% markup or less,
while oil companies actual gasoline cost is still about 14c/gal.=2000% markup
Medicine in the EU and Asia costs only 5-10% of US costs=1000-2000% markup. I was in both places just this summer, so I know the costs.