Kerry Is Sticking With Plan to Raise Auto Fuel Efficiency

The New York Times ^ | March 26, 2004 | By DANNY HAKIM

[GailA]

Better save this pic, he's going in for shoulder surgery ... botox renewel

[I still care]

I saw Jimmy Hoffa on hardball. He announced the unions support for Kerry.

Matthews immediately challenged him on ANWAR, and said aren't you for it?

Hoffa replied he met with Kerry on it, and Kerry promised him, they were "going to be drilling all over the place, lots of oil drilling".

The entire panel broke up in hysterics - Hoffa just looked down and looked sort of stupid.

[goldstategop]

John F. Seinfeld refuses to hear the fact the only way cars can made more fuel-efficient is if they're smaller and lighter. And that means more dangerous cars on the road. What we need is to strike a balance between production and conservation. The problem is Seinfeld and his fellow Democrats want it to be all conservation but they won't tell the public where they'll find additional energy sources not just so we can continue to drive our cars but to power our economy as well.

[Heatseeker]

Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, also said in an interview that Mr. Kerry was "not locked into any particular approach or any particular number."

I don't think Mr Kerry is locked into reality! Michigan has 17 electoral votes.

[WhiteyAppleseed]

I think candidates in office and candidates for office should improve their words-per-speech economy. It's a terrible waste of precious air space for them to continue on the way they are. I'm often amazed that they don't keel off from lack of oxygen with all that output. I personally think this explains why Senator Kerry looks so drained.

[Jack of all Trades]

Is there an issue where Kerry is not firmly planted on the fence? What this message says to me is that Kerry wants to pander to the enviro crowd while packaging his "proposals" in a way so as not to get the mainstream up in arms. What a fop.

Kerry - wrongheaded, and wimpy about it.

[Condor51]

Scoff if you must BUT the Kerry 'Team' has it's act together on this!

The 'KERRY TEAM' Sedan

The 'KERRY TEAM' SUV

The 'KERRY TEAM' 1st Responder Vehicles

OH and furthermore you doubting Thomas', THESE all get UNLIMITED Gas Mileage!

(granted 'Detroit' might take a hit, but MATTEL® stock will soar!)

[Puddleglum]

I would like to see fuel efficiency raised just because I am tired of the smog every summer here in Dallas and elsewhere. That said, what would be a good road (pardon the pun) to achieving this? I would say it's a local issue, but nothing involving transportation is only local anymore. If people pollute the commons (the resources we all share), they need to share in the expense of cleaning them up. The more they pollute, the more their share should be.

I don't see why we should treat this issue any different than holding responsible someone who throws trash along the road or dumps motor oil in the neighborhood creek.

[JOE43270]

Hanoi John will tell anybody what he thinks they want to hear.

[rintense]

I saw that! I was laughing right along with them!

[sc2_ct]

thank God one of the real engineers showed up. recouping heat loss as power is one area where we could gain a lot.

LOL, I'm actually just a crazy guy in CT trying to build a 400hp Saturn :)

Rolling resistance is definately a big problem. One of the other areas you could look to reduce rotating mass and minimize driveline loss is braking systems. While discs are great for stopping, spinning that big chunk of metal is adding a good 15% to the rotating mass. I haven't had any ideas on how to do it any differently really except if the wheels had the braking surface built in, and the pads (for want of a better word) would be hydraulicly pressed right to the wheel for stopping (similar to a bicycle but obviously much more sophisticated).

I think that the Caddy guys are onto something with the Northstar. If you can shut down cylinders during crusing (or alternate which one is filling anyway in order to allow even heating and cooling) so that you were effectively running 1/2 the cylinders at cruising throttle position, coupled with the PCM leaning out the fuel mixture, you would have an extremely effective drop in fuel consumption (and emissions output to boot).

Another area that has to be looked into would be lightening the vehicle itself. Of course you would have to take into consideration how the vehicle would react when colliding with a much heavier vehicle. With the cost of certain high-tech composites dropping so quickly (such as carbon fiber and carbon kevlar), you could build extremely rigid chassis and body panels that were less than 1/3 the weight and almost impervious to damage. The engine is another area where weight-loss could be effective. I've worked on a number of cars, and there are still so many iron-block engines out there it's sort of amazing. The Saturn aluminum block I'm rebuilding is so light that I can pick it up and carry it up and down stairs without much effort, and that's with the crankshaft, pistons and rods installed. The block itself can't weight more than 60 lbs or so. Compare that to a similar sized iron block and you'll see what I mean there.