…and one way to accomplish this is
to not only look forward but to use the side- and rear-view mirrors. It
was impressed upon me that 50 percent of the time, the driver should be looking
in the rear-view mirror.
The whole industry is a sham. Who
lobbies Congress to fight raising CAFE standards?
From: Forward Look
Mopar Discussion List [mailto:L-FORWARDLOOK@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Brent Burger
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007
11:18 AM
To: L-FORWARDLOOK@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [FWDLK] All this late
model and future discussion...
I had a similar experience.
My high school driver's ed. teacher tried
to impress upon the class that the best drivers were the ones who rarely
had to use their brakes - explaining that this gave maximum fuel economy, was
easy on the car's mechanics, the brakes lasted forever, and these driver's
would be safest, because in order to minimally use the brakes, you had to be an
extremely observant driver, anticipating the road situation far in
advance. These principals weren't lost on me.
We were told by the powers-that-be that the reason cars lost
chrome bumpers and real metal and style was "safety and
economy". I'd rather take a bread truck in my DeSoto than any full
size car for sale today, and if 20-25 mpg is the best anyone can offer
after fifty $#@! years of research and development ?????
Gimme a break ! We were lied to. The whole industry is a sham
! It is bad enough they look like bars of soap and you need $200,000
diagnostic equipment to work on them. But don't tell me they are great
cars. I have a garage full of great cars. I KNOW what those look
like !
B.
In December of 1964, our college SAE Club held an economy
run throughtout the Greater Los Angeles area. I went to a local Rambler
dealer and they gracioiusly loaned me a new plain Jane 1965 Rambler
American stick shift. This dealership had sponsored the previous year's
Mobil Gas economy run winner to Yosemite.
They gave it to me a week ahead of the run for practice, retarded the timing to
5 degrees after tdc (this what they told me) and put some smaller jets in the
carb. I added a vacuum gauge.
Just before the run, my navigator put 40# of air in the
tires. During the run, I drove without a shoe on my right foot. My
navigator looked ahead and advised me of the light situation. In total,
we had to stop for only 4 of the 88 lights on our run.
End result, we won the contest with 45 mpg!
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