Posted on 05/01/2005 6:19:00 AM PDT by MississippiMasterpiece
We tend to forget that because the whole idea of shortages and diminished expectations fits Carter like a glove. But OPEC flexed its muscle early, in the aftermath of the Munich Olympic attacks and the Yom Kippur War. The monster engine era of Chevelle SS's, Firebird Trans Ams, and Plymouth Roadrunners died almost overnight. By 1976; a "hot" car was a Toyota Celica GT fastback, a four-cylinder fuel sipper that looked like a 1974 Mustang at 4/5ths scale.
The 55 mph era suited the crappy cars that were being sold. But what a waste of highway engineering! Our magnificent interstates became the abode of clown cars like Gremlins, Chevettes, and Pintos. Fifty-five mph in these and similar wheeled deathtrap shoeboxes was just about as good as one could expect.
Automotive engineering has caught up with fuel conserving goals and there is no reason to return to the days of Nixon/Carter malaise. I was driving home from Colorado Springs yesterday in a late model borrowed Dodge Stratus, an ordinary car if ever there was one. But I had no problem pushing it at a smooth 85 mph for long stretches, hitting 29 mpg in the process.
But you said Secretary of Transportation. That was 1989-1993. No one would give a damned what she said about the 55 mph speed limit before that time. The FTC was not invovled in policy about speed limits.
She served as Secretary of Labor under Bush I.
The difference between conservatives and liberals is that conservatives will enforce a law on the books, even if they dislike it, because it is the law. Liberals will just thumb their nose in the wind to a law they dislike, or even tell cops to ignore violations thereof.
It's certainly possible for one to more than offset the other, but it sure doesn't happen too often (check the Corvettes out where the have a second overdrive of ~ 0.5:1 and don't get into high gear until a relatively high speed compared to most other vehicles).
Except in this case, the 'conservative' in question went against the wishes of the conservative administration, the last one as a matter of fact, at the time. Beside that fact, I find any argument that the national government has the right to determine the speed limit in the separate and sovereign states to be specious at best. Dole believes it is the right and responsibility of the national government to protect us from ourselves. Doesn't sound very conservative to me.
Same thing for me with my 83 Cutlass. Factory v6 (w/ only 110 hp) car, got barely 16 mpg on highway... Drop in 307 (140 hp), same gear ratio, and I get 19-20 mpg on the highway. Now got 455 rocket (270 hp/390 ft lbs torque) with a 2004r overdrive, and on the highway I get 25 mpg at speeds upwards of 70mph. Between 55-65 I get 21-22 mpg. And this is an automatic.
Her voting record as the Senior Senator from North Carolina (I love hearing that--now that Edwards is GONE!) is very conservative, and in any case her role in the "protecting us from ourselves" has been more or less the role of the DOT, in all fairness.
455?!? Taking the big blocks out now huh? LOL. I had one of the last 302s in a 95, but had it bored .40 and stroked 1/2". After everything was said and done, only thing left from the old engine was the block. Mind you, I'm not getting 25 mph by any means but with the stock gear I still get 15-16 mph around 70 and 12-13 mph at 55.
Yep, its a low compression '73 motor, but I worked the stock heads (J castings) till they flowed better than C or F heads on the exhaust side. Running stock size valves with a 268* duration/450* lift camshaft. Still stock bore/stroke. Also using HEI distributor for hotter igniton so I don't have to run it so rich, have maximum advance set to about 34*, and it runs perfectly fine on regular unleaded, no detonation whatsoever.
Because it is a big block, its in-town mileage is not so satisfactory, but thats a reasonable trade-off for me.
While the relationship is not simple, speed does have something to do with mileage. If for no other reason that wind resistance goes up roughly as the square of the speed. However efficiency of the engine-drivetrain combination may also go up. (ie. gallons of fuel per horsepower hour, to make up a, AFAIK, new unit of measure). More horsepower is required as speed increases, but it may be partially or totally balenced by increase efficiency. Some tractor-trailer rigs actually lost MPG when the speed limit was reduced in the 70s, because the gearing was designed to be most efficient at 70 MPH or so. The only way they could change that was to get a new transmission, or at least new gears for the ones they had.
There are, but they are mainly sold in Europe. Plus, the Japanese are very fond of the hybrid stuff.
Honda recently came out with an excellent new diesel engine, but I think it's only available in the Accord, and only in Europe.
I actually had a diesel Nissan Sentra years ago. It was somewhat underpowered, lacking a turbo, but extremely dependable, and lasted a long time (265k+ mi.) despite a lack of proper servicing.
Thanks for the ping!
"For a normal vehicle that might be true if the difference in the speeds was say 60 vs. 55 but for 55 and 75 the relative velocities for a given Cd preclude that"
If a given vehicle gets better mileage at 75 than it does at 55 I'd say there's something seriously wrong with either its design or state of tune. Crappy old auto tranny designs that wouldn't lock up their torque converters until a certain speed was reached in top gear, that sort of thing. Or failing to upshift when they should. Or with such poorly chosen and widely spaced ratios that 2 is too low and 3rd too high at 55. It could happen but it's unlikely in any modern car in which all the manual trannies are at least 5 speeds and all the auto trannies are at least 4 speeds (my '04 Accord has a 5 speed auto, and I think I've read that the new Jetta is available with a 6 speed auto).
They do make them and they are coming. Many think they are just waiting till the ULSD diesel is actually mandated. It's also commonly thought that the new diesels that VW has introduced here in the States are slightly detuned versions of the same engines in Europe to accomodate our high-sulpher fuel.
Mercedes has introduced a model this year, and the CRD in the Jeep is a Mercedes diesel engine.
As it is, several states: CA, MA and NY come to mind, do not allow diesels to be sold. These idiots in the state version of the EPA are selling us out in the name of the environment.
Funny thing is most of these folks who like to quote whatever the Euros do in the name of the environment, conveniently forget that the diesel makes up over half of all car sales over there.
How about we just let folks decide for themselves if they want to be shiftless or not?
Actually government regulation is driving us the other way. Many vehicles no longer come with a manual tranny, not even as an option. Or it may come on the base with the 4 cylinder but not with the V-6 or V-8. The reason is not only because fewer people opt for a manual, or only because the automatics are more expensive and thus the car makers make more money selling them, but also because the expense of EPA testing for each engine-transmission-model combination becomes prohibitive if only a relatively small number of buyers will opt for a particular combination. For example try buying any American brand car with a V-6 and a manual tranny, save perhaps the "muscle cars". Even Honda stopped making V-6 manual tranny Accords several years ago. Toyota still makes Solara and Camry with the combination though. Mazda also makes the 6 with that combination (Both my wife and daughter have 6s, both with sticks, although daughter's is not the V-6. I bought my used 626 in large part because I finally found a car that size, about 3 years old (this was 3 years ago) with that V-6/manual tranny combination.
Amaziningly that very close to the amount our population has increased since 1973 (37%). Since the biggest oil users, vehicles, have become much efficient, I take that as meaning that our standard of living has increased considerably. Those countries whose oil demand has fallen, and who have not replaced all of that energy and more with some other type, such as nuclear, coal, etc, have experienced falling standards of living.
Thanks. Did some search and found this:
Driving Impression: Honda Accord Diesel
http://www.channel4.com/4car/road-tests/driving-impressions/hondaaccorddiesel-2376/hondaaccorddiesel-2376-2.html
(kiss GM good bye...)
I used to sky dive, especially in Germany in the early 70's. I was crazy enough to drive a stock VW that fast.
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