The Amazing 2,500 MPG Car

I have really gotten tired of automakers making slow, incremental improvements to the MPG ratings of their cars. Not just our “American” manufacturers, but pretty much all car makers. Ideally all cars would be electric, so that emissions would be centralized at power generating stations. Then the carbon reduction mechanisms would truly work. But guess what, our world isn’t doing that, not even close, and it is sad. So instead of jumping directly on the electric bandwagon, carmakers are improving mpgs. But are these “huge” improvements really that good?

Just last month, the Shell Eco-Marathon in Houston conducted a combustion car race, to see who could get the best mpg rating. A team from the University Laval in Quebec made a car, sort of, that got 2,565 mpg. Although the car is made for one person, and looks more like a wheeled sleeping bag than a sedan, but it shows the potential energy that gasoline has. This model is technically more efficient than human muscles, which would translate to about 1000 mpg, if the fuel was food and the person drove a bike. The energy stored in a gallon of gasoline is theoretically much higher, and could be in the tens of thousands of mpgs is friction and weight was minimal.

This leads me to believe that combustion engines of the “big-business car dealership” models, which seem to be topping off at 50 mpg of so, are not much better than a Flintstones boulder-mobile. Yes, cars are heavy and need to be safe for the passengers, but does everyone need that? I’d take the risk of having a lightweight vehicle that is getting 100-200 mpg. If sitting up doesn’t matter to you, a reclining style vehicle would get even better mileage. Once again, the commodity market of oil and car manufacturers banking in on their purposely inefficient cars. I can’t wait until I can afford a completely electric vehicle, and shove it to these American oil business “people”.