well I bought some 1960's Hot rod magazines (ebay)...they talked about economy runs...they put it up there with drag racing and hill climbing ..things 2do...has anyone built a custom light weight chassis/motor/trans/say fiberglass roaster body to get the weight down to SEE what the best possible mpg can be achieved? with gas always going up this may be a interesting build...looks like Mobile used to have these runs..back in the day....can you build a 40 + mpg slant ? of corse a minimal vehicle weight...overdrive? 170 " motor ? stuff?
any input
time has come.
it may be the vehicle of the future...

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slant six's RULE!
http://www.usajon.com

Hi USAJon.

That can be really fun, but be careful; I've also seen fuel saving turn into an obsession!

A good start is to study the chart in this little article, HorsepowerTA.pdf. It was once published by Nitrod Performance Meters, I cannot find them on internet anymore.

Once you think through all possible ways to improve on the losses of power in that table, and start realising those improvements one by one, your fuel economy will improve! You need less fuel to do a task that demand less power.

You should also take a look at the discussions in this thread: Cheap-o ways to increase MPG??

Olaf.

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Aspenized

Go for it, John! I have been thinking about this for 20 yrs, but always get sucked in by other projects.

My '64 Dart got 25-27 MPG on a 1000+ mile trip last summer, and more upgrades are on the way. This is one of my "fast" cars (14s in 1/4), so mileage is a side interest there. My guess is 28-30 should be doable on that car w/ a HP 225.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

" my 76 Feather Duster I did a few years ago. Sold it but it would be nice to find a solid Dart Lite and fix it up. Mine got 32 MPG on a trip to NC on the interstate. "

well if a stock car gets 32 mpg then a striped down old school hot rod chassis/fiberglass shell should do 40 mpg plus !
say a bucket/roadster/toplaino
or ?

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slant six's RULE!
http://www.usajon.com

John,

I also think a track T or Duece coupe would really be a nice setup for mileage, and lots of other things. Go for it!!

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Aerodynamics are a bigger factor at highway speeds than weight. Weight reduction helps a lot when there are lots of changes in speed, but much less so in steady cruising.

If I was to do this I'd use an early Barracuda for aerodynamics and build a 10:1 compression ratio 170 with quench combustion chambers. For the drivetrain I'd use a mid 1990s Mustang V6 T5 with 3.23 gears in the rear end. I'd also have a wide band O2 meter in the dash so I could tune the carb as well as possible and also adjust my driving habits.

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Joshua

@ 55 mph areodynimics are not as big a factor in my mind..I drove our 1985 slant six 4 speed od short bed @ 55 mph when I first bought it and drove it normal/flat road I got 24 mpg which was above the listed mpg for the vehicle..and it has 165K too.

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slant six's RULE!
http://www.usajon.com

back in the day as youngins I had a 1960 vette that I put a 427 motor in, a friend had a stock 1964 -1966 ? cuda and that he want'd to put in a 392 hemi, but it had a stock vac meter that read power/economy depending of your throttle responce. think it was a 273..

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slant six's RULE!
http://www.usajon.com

At 75 MPH aerodynamics are quite a bit more important than 55 MPH. In many places 55 MPH is impractical on the freeway. I have a Neon as a daily driver because it was cheap and I get 36 MPG while cruising 75 MPH on the freeway.

Yes, early Barracudas had a vacuum gauge in the dash unless you opted for a tachometer. It's helpful especially if you know the opening point of the power valve.

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Joshua

we live 2miles from washington dc so fast is rare...
we had a 1991 geo metro conv. we drove all the way to the Fla. Keys..35 mpg @ 85mph, my turbo diesel rabbit caddy always got 35 mpg no matter how loaded/fast I drove it..it had a jetta motor old school non computer

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slant six's RULE!
http://www.usajon.com

Mythbusters did a show about mpg and aerodynamics. They covered a car with clay and cut golf ball dimples all over it. MPG increased dramaticly even though the car was several hundred pounds heavier.

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I would be interested to see that show, and see what "dramatically" means. If it really works, I'd be willing to dimple up a car...

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

If that is true then we made a mistake when I worked at the Ford dealership. A severe hail storm went through the area and left golf ball size dimples all over 100+ cars. Silly us, we sent them all out for repairs! We should have left them on there and said it was to improve gas mileage! Go figure.

Rick

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

11% improved milage!

mythbusters-dimpled-car-minimyth.html

Olaf.

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Aspenized

Thanks Olaf, I was to lazy to go look for the link

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