TresCrows
Elite Member
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Economics and big business. As Richard has mentioned, it costs a lot to make corn alchohol right now.
A better question is why the manufacturers keep selling us cars/trucks that get mediocre mileage. The automobile has been around over 100 years. All the manufacturers are on a new/recent engine designs that replaced older less efficient ones.
So, how come we still get mediocre mileage? They burn cleaner, and have more HP, but they do not get significantly better fuel economy compared to the previos generation of engines. Heck, my Dad's '63 Chevy Super Sport Impala with a HO 327 would get mid 20's on the highway(IF he kept his foot out of the secondaries on that Holley). What do full size sedan/coupes get now?
It burns my hide, 'cause it's all big business. First, we use up non-replaceable fuel source(dino-oil). Second, it costs us a lot at the pump. Third, the autos use a lot of it. )</font>
Well, hmmmmmm, this is not actually the way it is. Unfortunately the laws of thermodynamics could care less about our human plight. Cars do get better mileage but they keep getting bigger and bigger as well. There is only so much BTU in a gallon of gasoline or weight volume. That is true for coal, alcohol, hydrogen, plutonium. You got a fuel with finite energy available and you have the laws of thermodynamcis to contend with which simply put there is simply NO WAY you can move a 6,000 lbs SUV down the road pulling a trailer full of horses at 75 MPH and expect to get 50 MPG. Engines at our current technology are hardly more than 30 percent efficient. New ceramic technologies can boost that. The rest of the enregy escapes as radiant heat and exhaust heat and some is used in internal and external friction and on and on. What exactly do you expect here /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif--to bend the laws of nature /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif. GM, Ford, not even Toyota much less Exxon or Conoco can make something from nothing that gets more miles per gallon from less of that something that is nothing /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif. Thermodynamics will limit maximum MPG possible at some point. Can we still improove--YES--how much--not very much unless you are willing to do without 300 horsepower in a vehicle that weighs about 2,000 lbs and seats four people and cannot pull a trailer, has no airconditioner and is computer speed limited to the posted limits of 55 MPH and reports you to the police if you alter the speed limiter chip. Is that what you want?
A prediction--there will never be a 400 hundred horsepower SUV or truck that can pull a tandem trailer at 75 MPH up a mountain road loaded to max weight that will ever get more than about 35 MPG--unloaded at best economy--much less doing the aforementioned. It probably is not possible by the laws of nature. We may approach such numbers with hybrid technology and in time fuel cells may provide performance equal to our current IC engines but it won't be any time soon.
Do you really think that if Texaco had a brilliant scientist who discovered a means of altering physics that they would not market it--that is crazy--oil is big money but a quantum leap in energy development that would change the nature of the playing field could make tons and tons of money--way more than oil--imagine the potential if it existed. There are no conspiericies and there is no free ride. If you drive big cars, prepare to pay big fuel bills and blame it on yourself cuz Exxon did not design the car and GM cannot change nature, the only thing that can be changed--maybe--is human nature. J
A better question is why the manufacturers keep selling us cars/trucks that get mediocre mileage. The automobile has been around over 100 years. All the manufacturers are on a new/recent engine designs that replaced older less efficient ones.
So, how come we still get mediocre mileage? They burn cleaner, and have more HP, but they do not get significantly better fuel economy compared to the previos generation of engines. Heck, my Dad's '63 Chevy Super Sport Impala with a HO 327 would get mid 20's on the highway(IF he kept his foot out of the secondaries on that Holley). What do full size sedan/coupes get now?
It burns my hide, 'cause it's all big business. First, we use up non-replaceable fuel source(dino-oil). Second, it costs us a lot at the pump. Third, the autos use a lot of it. )</font>
Well, hmmmmmm, this is not actually the way it is. Unfortunately the laws of thermodynamics could care less about our human plight. Cars do get better mileage but they keep getting bigger and bigger as well. There is only so much BTU in a gallon of gasoline or weight volume. That is true for coal, alcohol, hydrogen, plutonium. You got a fuel with finite energy available and you have the laws of thermodynamcis to contend with which simply put there is simply NO WAY you can move a 6,000 lbs SUV down the road pulling a trailer full of horses at 75 MPH and expect to get 50 MPG. Engines at our current technology are hardly more than 30 percent efficient. New ceramic technologies can boost that. The rest of the enregy escapes as radiant heat and exhaust heat and some is used in internal and external friction and on and on. What exactly do you expect here /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif--to bend the laws of nature /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif. GM, Ford, not even Toyota much less Exxon or Conoco can make something from nothing that gets more miles per gallon from less of that something that is nothing /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif. Thermodynamics will limit maximum MPG possible at some point. Can we still improove--YES--how much--not very much unless you are willing to do without 300 horsepower in a vehicle that weighs about 2,000 lbs and seats four people and cannot pull a trailer, has no airconditioner and is computer speed limited to the posted limits of 55 MPH and reports you to the police if you alter the speed limiter chip. Is that what you want?
A prediction--there will never be a 400 hundred horsepower SUV or truck that can pull a tandem trailer at 75 MPH up a mountain road loaded to max weight that will ever get more than about 35 MPG--unloaded at best economy--much less doing the aforementioned. It probably is not possible by the laws of nature. We may approach such numbers with hybrid technology and in time fuel cells may provide performance equal to our current IC engines but it won't be any time soon.
Do you really think that if Texaco had a brilliant scientist who discovered a means of altering physics that they would not market it--that is crazy--oil is big money but a quantum leap in energy development that would change the nature of the playing field could make tons and tons of money--way more than oil--imagine the potential if it existed. There are no conspiericies and there is no free ride. If you drive big cars, prepare to pay big fuel bills and blame it on yourself cuz Exxon did not design the car and GM cannot change nature, the only thing that can be changed--maybe--is human nature. J
