4/22/2002: 264 MPG car

264 MPG? Yep, in a Volkswagen vehicle that's experimental but not all that far-fetched. Their goal was only 235 MPG -- or, in terms practical for their engineers, 100 km per 1 litre. And they achieved it - in the real-world conditions shown above.

The VW is extremely light, at 639 pounds, but does include ABS and driver's airbag. (There is a passenger seat - right behind the driver.) It'll even do 75 MPH (120 km/h). The gas tank carries about a gallon and a half of diesel.

The full story.

Bad ass.

Most high-mileage vehicles these days don't seat too many anyway. A friend of mine has a Honda Insight - 2 guys in there, period. It's a commuter car and that's it. Great if you have to drive 140 miles every day. Other than that, you want something else.

I can definitely see a market for these things. The question, however - how safe are they?

Originally posted by Undertoad

Looks like the Very Worst place to be in an accident.

:p

Why is the VW the only car in this picture without it's headlights on?

So how many of the following vehicles are part of the caravan monitoring this car's progress? And what's the average KmPL when you take them into consideration? :p

For that matter, what's the KmPL when you turn the headlights on? :p

You have to protect a car that small by surrounding it with normal-sized vehicles, or it could end up stuck in the tire treads of some SUV.

Originally posted by Undertoad


terms practical for their engineers, 100 km per 1 litre. And they achieved it - in the real-world conditions shown above.

Damn that's efficient, if I could get 100km/litre on my motorcycle I could do 1000km without a refuel instead of less than 200km, and that's with just me, cruising not racing, on the flat.

Then again, it does say that they drove it to this presentation at an average 75k/hr (but at somewhat less than 1L per 100k !), which isn't exactly rocketing along (speed limit in here in NZ is 100k/hr on open road, I usually do 100k/hr if I see a cop and 115k/hr if I don't :-)).

Please notice also that this car does not have side mirrors as they add wind resitance, and they probably are not needed because a single rearview mirror would suffice in such a small/narrow car.

Originally posted by dhamsaic
Bad ass.
<snip>
The question, however - how safe are they?

I don't think you'd want to get into an accident with one of these:

"...the reinforced plastic outer skin conceals a space frame constructed from magnesium, which is even lighter than aluminium."

and a good deal more dangerous in the event of a fire, I might add. Remember grade 8 chemistry?

http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/JCESoft/CCA/CCA0/MOVIES/MAGCO2.html

Originally posted by bartman

"...a space frame constructed from magnesium..."

and a good deal more dangerous in the event of a fire, I might add.

I doubt they're using pure magnesium... it is most assuredly some kind of mag alloy. Check this out to see how difficult it can be to get a magnesium alloy to ignite:

http://www.blackholeinc.com/Library/93%20June.html

Forgot to add: look for "Pyromania!" about two-thirds of the way down.