I don't know what to make of this story. Some engineer tweaked his Mustang and is getting 110mpg. The car has 400hp and does 0-60 in 3 seconds!

Check it out: http://www.local6.com/automotive/16768626/detail.html

 

already covered:

http://forums.bradbarnett.net/showthread.php?t=469965

 

Ooops, should have looked harder.

 

I love how 7 days ago it was an 80mpg mustang, 5 days ago it was 100mpg, and now its 110mpg! This Mustang is magic!

Disclaimer: Zag, above statement is not directed at you, it is at how the media stretches everything.

 

I seriously hope you guys don't believe this horse pookey.. 0-60 in 3 seconds and 110 mpg.. yea ok..

 

Only thing I got to say about this is, I imagine it's *possible*... but with no further proof than some guy saying so and a few news crews out there happy to use the sensationalistic factor and report it...

I say put up or shut up *now* and prove it. Regardless of the X-prize. The acutal competition is in 2009, and this kind of stuff needed to be shown 3 years ago, if not further back.

Crackpots, all of them. Until they prove me wrong. I don't wanna wait, I wanna *see it now.* And show us why it works. Waiting for things because you want to win when it could have a global impact that can directly affect *many millions*, potentially, is just plain stingy and self centered. The jerk.

That is all.

<--myopic sometimes. So?!

 

Physics:

400hp (at the wheels I assume) = 1.07 * 10^9 Joules/hour

1 Gallon of gas contains 132 * 10^6 Joules of energy.

(1.07*10^9 Joules/hour)/(132*10^6 Joules/gal) = 8.106 gallons/hour

A typical internal combustion engine has an effiency of about 20%. Experimental designs have gotten up to 28%, and the theoretical maximum possible effiency is in the low 30%. (Source: http://mb-soft.com/public2/engine.html)

Lets give him the benefit of the doubt and say he's somehow achieved near the theoretical maximum effiency and say his engine is 30% efficient.

(8.106 gal/hour)/0.30 = 27.02 gal/hour = 0.45 gallons / minute.

So whenever he is outputting his total 400hp, he will be burning almost a gallon of gas every two minutes. Who says? Physics says.

And that's assuming he has an engine close to the theoretical limit of effiency and not accounting for energy lost to various real world things (drag, friction, etc, etc.)

 

Meh.. Sounds pretty farfetched.

 

There's a catch. They are using an MPGe calculation. With E85 gas they are making 1.425 gallons equal to 1 gallon of regular gas.

 

Drop it from an airplane, you'll hit those speeds and MPG... just not pretty in the end.