<VV>Cheap Gaz

[Ken Campbell]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Padgett" <pp2 at 6007.us>
To: <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Subject: <VV>Cheap Gaz


> Point was that to make a Corvair suitable for Iterstate speeds,you have to
> change things, it was not designed that way.
> Padgett
************
Great Post !!
One little comment ... engines are ( theoretically )  more efficient the
hotter they run .. because energy in the combusted chamber can go more to
pushing down on the piston than escaping thru a cool cylinder wall ....
the crossover point obviously is when the engine melts, it becomes not so
efficient (g).
Which is what all the interest in ceramic engines is about ... ceramics work
just fine at 2000 degrees F or so.
**********
Oh, purely from efficiency compression is also a very big deal regarding
wasting energy ... a goal could be the 22 to 1 of diesels ... ( why aren't
we all running diesels ... .... they say soy diesel doesn't stink so bad
    )
*************
Anyway, one point that I haven't see mentioned strongly yet is the use of
skinny, low traction tires to gain fuel mileage.
Around town, a lightweight tire can save lots of energy because of not
having to put all that fuel into spinning them up to speed every block, and
then burning off, wasting that same energy heating up your brakes every
block ... the energy comes, of course, from your gas tank.

Once reaching a speed of ... WAG here ....   25 mph, the friction from the
sticky ( wider, stickier compounds ) is the major problem , not so much the
weight of the tire ... the energy stored in the tire winding it up is not
wasted until you slow down... this could be 200 miles down the road, so is
not so important.
BUT... the drag of the high friction tire can be very significant... oh, I
see I have 1/2 a punch left on my toy car anecdote ticket, so I will use
that up now.:::

A few years ago, a very fun thing to do was to all show up at a local
velodrome ( bike racing oval ) and run our toy cars ... oval racing (g).
Top End was what it was all about.  We quickly found out our super grabber
road racing tire compounds were a sure way to lose... so we went to skinnier
and harder compounds, and ... ( although accelerating from a dead stop at
the green flag was very very hairy... nearly impossible )  top end picked up
maybe 5 to 15 %, with no other changes in motor tuning, chassis setup, or
body aerodynamics.

The extra power to go faster came from less power eaten up by the tires.

So, if a guy could find some skinny hard rubber, and promise not to play
road racing games at low speed, betcha you could pick up 2 to 6 miles per
gallon on the big slab ...   can you still buy the old '60s type Michelin X,
you know the ones with the little funny slits for tread?  dang i loved those
tires ... or maybe those days ...  I put 40K  VeryHard Miles on a set with
my '66 140 rig, and they were only half worn out when I traded ( STUPID
STUPID MOVE ) the vair off .

whatcha think??

no charge for the above advice, ken campbell, deltawerkes.




-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.392 / Virus Database: 268.5.5/333 - Release Date: 5/5/2006