[AT] AT Digest, Vol 39, Issue 6 cylinder Chevrolet

[John]

Here is a link about what you are talking about...
http://www.fuel-efficient-vehicles.com/FEV-Future.php 

And here is an exert from that page...

1929: The President of General Motors predicts 80 mpg cars within 10 years 
1973: Shell employees create a 375 mpg car. 

Some folks at Shell Oil Co. wrote "Fuel Economy of the Gasoline Engine"
(ISBN 0-470-99132-1); it was published by John Wiley & Sons, New York, in
1977. On page 42 Shell Oil quotes the President of General Motors, he, in
1929, predicted 80 MPG by 1939. Between pages 221 and 223 Shell writes of
their achievements: 

  49.73 MPG around 1939; 
149.95 MPG with a 1947 Studebaker in 1949; 
244.35 MPG with a 1959 Fiat 600 in 1968; 
376.59 MPG with a 1959 Opal in 1973.   (see the car below) 

The Library of Congress (LOC), in September 1990, did not have a copy of
this book. It was missing [!] from the files. I bought my copy from Maryland
Book Exchange around 1980 after a professor informed me that it was used as
an engineering text at the University of West Virginia. VPI published a
paper, March 1979, concerning maximum achievable fuel economy. This paper
has several charts illustrating achievable and impossible fuel economy. 

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Carl Tatlock
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 9:11 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] AT Digest, Vol 39, Issue 6 cylinder Chevrolet

Claudeprintequip at aol.com wrote:
> Hello list,
>  
> Off topic.
>  
> Don't think Chevrolet was ever into tractors.  (obligatory  tractor
comment)  
> I  remember reading a Look Magazine article while  killing some time in a 
> study hall in 1952.  It was about Chevrolet setting  a gas mileage world
record. 
> 123 MPG I think. Two drivers manned a  special vehicle from New York to
Los  
> Angeles.    Chevrolet used a stock engine from their  assembly line _*with

> special carburation, *_ a special two seat, light  weight vehicle. There
were a number 
> of  things done to assure the best  fuel economy possible; coasting,
driving 
> slow, etc. This information also  appeared in the Guiness book of world 
> records for a number of years  afterward.  Anyway, now all the information
seems to 
> be  gone.   Does anyone else remember this
>  
> demonstration of fuel economy by Chevrolet?
>  
> Claude 
> Tontitown, Arkansas
>
> *Claude, and others on this thread:*  Carl in VT here with an eyewitness
account about Chevrolet and carburation. I had a friend in the late 1940's
whose father was a plant manager of a Chevrolet plant.  He was loaned a new
1949 Chev with a carb that was shrouded under a sealed cover (could not be
looked at or tampered with)  (as much as we tried...)   and his duty was to
drive it in regular use but keeping meticulous records of gas mileage.
After a few months the car was returned to the factory.    The only other
alteration from stock was a pair of platinum points.  There were, we were
told, 6 of these modified cars around the country in the "test".   
> His son overheard him report that he was getting 38 miles per gallon. 
>
> The carb was obviously never seen in production.  We used to figure the
oil companies had something to do with it.   Seemed like a nonsense theory
then--- but now???
>
>
>   


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