AGREED!!!

It leaves me speechless that my 1-ton diesel can pull itself, a car, a trailer, and good payload in the bed and STILL get better gas mileage than a new Cobra.
I get 21mpg empty, 18-19mpg with 14,000 lbscargo in a 6990lb truck.

To a further extent, I think SUVs - the big ones - are the true hogs. V-10 Excursions get TERRIBLE mileage. Even the previous Durangos have a well-known appetite at around 13-15 mpg. This is unacceptable for our time and technology. Crimony, the old man's 62 Galaxy had a 406-3x2v with a 4-speed that he ran high 12's with and it got better mileage than today's "technologically advanced" family haulers.

The F-cars, the late 5.0 Mustangs, and many of the late model coupes all have VERY respectable mileage in the perspective of the whole market IMO. But the sad thing is, even these cars COULD be far better than they are.

 

Id like to see 3 and a special edition 4th one. If the ZL1 is brought back, I hope it doesnt double the price as it did in 69.
Id like to see:
3.9 V6 DOD= 250hp
5.3 V8 DOD= 310hp
6.0 V8 = 390hp.

Also, what might happen if the 3v heads make it on the 6.0?

 

Well, gasoline direct injection should help out further with gas milage and "power density" (tq/l). I was reading the recent C&D issue and Csere had a mini tech article on Audi's new 3.1L GDI engine. It has a 12.5:1 CR. that's a full 2-3 points over today's SFI engines. But the extra compression is also good for fuel economy. Diesels get ~20:1 CR which gives them the insane torque and gas mileage over SFI gasoline engines. GM needs to get on the ball with GDI. If all these things are combined together, GDI, DoD, 6-speed autos, (what else am I forgetting?) gas milage should shoot up by at least 20% easy. that means an SUV getting 20mpg now would be in the 24-26mpg range. and a sports car getting 29mpg would be in the 34-36mpg range. not bad at all! not to mention the minions of 4 bangers already getting good milage... 40mpg on gasoline isn't too far a fetch.

 

GDI sounds hard on a OHV engine, but GM did create this back with the XV12 Northstar which featured DOHC, VVT, Direct Injection, and DoD.

 

Do you have any idea what all that gadgetry would cost?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for technology - heck it's MY job to develop new stuff! But it doesn't take a bazillion $$ to make an economical car.

The Vega and Pinto that are both over 30 years old now, were delivering over 30 mpg and with decent power to boot... years ago. I drove the ol' man's Pinto around for kicks when I was 16 (he just used it as a knock-around car for g-store, pond fishing, run to the parts house, etc., and it was GREAT to go buy Mustangs in because people assumed we had no money! ). It had a 2.3 and a 4-speed, and yes, I layed some rubber with it on occasion. It routinely broke 30 mpg, unless I was hot-doggin' it a bunch. We also had a grey Vega (72 I think it was) for a year or two - basically the same deal. Had a 2.3L, manual. Fun car, cheap, and miserly. Heck, I drive a '93 Mustang vert with a 2.3 in it right now, and get 32-34 mpg on 87 octane. It's fairly peppy, but I drive like a little old man while I'm in it It's still fun - in fact is my daughter's favorite car out of all I own (she's 6 BTW).

So if we had cars capable of 30mpg or better 30 years ago, why is it such a big deal now? Most of us don't buy V6's or inline 4's for their performance potential - we want economy. VW has some units getting 45mpg and better on fuel. Personally, I think all car makers should have broken 50mpg in one of their models a long time ago, just based on environmental merit - not CAFE regulations and state/fed laws.
And the bottom line is, I'm not going to pay a small fortune for what ought to be the cheapest option for me in the first place - economy.

 

pony, you're missing the point. and if you're an engineer you shouldn't be missing it. the point is, technology advancements allow us the "have our cake and eat it too" type of situation. sure you can get 30mpg in an economy car, that's why its an economy car. but what about getting 35mpg in a fire breathing monster that lays down 400hp+?? or the flip side, as I already mentioned, what about economy cars getting even more economical? 40mpg on 87 gas from a 2L 4-banger isn't something you see everyday but its possible with GDI. and i bet it's waaaaaay cheaper than the hybrid-electric approach.

the cost issue where GDI is concerned should be resolved shortly. if it's possible to make diesels economical (which have much more technological wizardry than your average gasoline engine) why should GDI be extra expensive? EFI/SFI is more expensive than carburation, isn't it? than why is every automobile engine today sold with some kind of fuel injection? emissions and fuel economy. GDI further helps those along.

BTW, the diesel's greatest challenge was the injector. those things have to reliably perform in the 16k-23k psi range. those are huge pressures! GDI only requires ~2k psi. that's 1/10th of the diesel. it shouldn't add as much cost as you might think.