400 HP 1987 Mustang gets 85 MPG?

A local man is competing for the Progressive automotive X Prize. His 1987 400 HP / 500 lbs of torque , is currently getting 85 MPG and can win the 10 Million Dollar prize by getting to 100 MPG. The engine must be marketable and affordable and will be judged on performance as well as economy.

This Electronics engineer and master mechanic claims his engine could save the automotive industry. Quite a bold statement but he seems sincere. He said he could have sold off his technology and it probably would not have seen the light of day. If his claims are correct and he succeeds then it could most certainly be a huge jump in the right direction. We still need an alternative energy source but this could hold off the inevitable for little while longer while new technologies are researched and developed. Time will tell!

[edit on 1-7-2008 by AkashicScribe]

reply to post by AkashicScribe

Napoleon man's low-profile auto aims for $10 million mileage prize


The 1987 Ford Mustang now achieves 80 miles per gallon.


Zoom | Photo Reprints


By LARRY P. VELLEQUETTE
BLADE BUSINESS WRITER


NAPOLEON, Ohio - Doug Pelmear has lots of secrets beneath the hood of his black 1987 Ford Mustang on which the only outward hint of individuality is a series of stickers.

But looks can be deceiving. Mr. Pelmear's 21-year-old pony car has enough technological innovation to quadruple the classic Mustang's original gas mileage while almost doubling its available horsepower.

That's 80 miles per gallon and 400 horsepower, folks. And the 48-year-old electronics engineer and master mechanic is not done yet.

The third-generation automotive tinkerer hopes that next year his Mustang - more specifically its engine - will help him win the $10 million Progressive Automotive X Prize: a "race" to find an affordable, marketable automobile that gets at least 100 miles per gallon, or its equivalent.

"I'm an optimist, and I think people need to know there is hope out there," Mr. Pelmear said. "That's why I decided to enter the X Prize race. I could have sold this [technology] off, but then people might not have seen it.

"It's not about the money. Our country really needs this."

The Progressive Automotive X Prize is sponsored by the X Prize Foundation to focus attention on and improve technology for real-world fuel economy.

Private teams compete in two categories, mainstream and concept, and compete against one another in a staged race that will judge performance, fuel economy, and marketability. There are no official entrants yet, but scores of teams have signed letters of intent to participate in the races, scheduled for 2009.

What radical technology did Mr. Pelmear introduce? His patents are not fully in place, but he said it mostly is a matter of electronics and precision.

"We redesigned a lot of different things on the [engine] block," the engineer said.

"It's still a rod-and-piston engine; it just has a lot more electronics on it."

Mr. Pelmear said that traditional gas engines operate "at a very low efficiency, like 8 to 10 percent, and our engine is like at 38 percent efficiency."

He said he could greatly increase even that number if his car used traditional gasoline instead of a mix of gas and 85 percent ethanol, which burns hotter but releases fewer hydrocarbons into the atmosphere.

His engine also would be more efficient if he had sacrificed some of its 400 horsepower or 500 foot-pounds of torque, but Mr. Pelmear said his design is intended for "real-world" uses, not the laboratory.

"I'm not the highest-miles-per-gallon vehicle entered in the X Prize, but I think I'm the more consumer friendly, more down to earth, more conventional," he said.

Mr. Pelmear's Mustang is entered in the X Prize's "mainstream" competition against other modified pro-
duction cars.

According to the X Prize foundation, he will compete against several dozen other vehicles from around the world.

Mr. Pelmear, president of Horse Power Sales.net Inc. in Napoleon, already markets one of his fuel-saving, performance-enhancing inventions: a "girdle" that strengthens engine blocks by spanning the valley of V-configured engines.

After spending what he said is more than $1.4 million pursuing patents and his design work, he recently picked up a new partner: Rocket Ventures, a venture capital arm of the Regional Growth Partnership in Toledo.

Todd Davies, business development manager for the public-private Rocket Ventures, said the firm's involvement with Mr. Pelmear's firm fits in with the venture company's mission.

"He has a new technology, and what we help do is build the business around new technologies," Mr. Davies said. "This could be an American-built engine that could save the American auto industry."

Contact Larry P. Vellequette at:
[email protected]
or 419-724-6091.

just in case the link didnt work"http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080701/BUSINESS02/807010341"

if i could buy a car with 100 mpg
i would
i only need maybe 250 hp

One man working alone save getting a couple bucks from a venture capitol firm can accomplish this yet the auto industry can't push 30 to 40 mpg on a 200 Hp + motor? Yeah, the automakers aren't in bed with big oil, right.

reply to post by Yell04


And what do you say about the multi-billion dollar losses announced at said automakers? If true, this man has certainly got a winning combination on his hands.

I can't wait for private companies to start really breaking this technology out and getting all the success they deserve for it. I just heard today that my friend just did a hydrogen hybrid system on his Dodge Dakota and now gets 40 miles to the gallon, where before he was getting 18. I'm having the same guy who developed and rigged his to do my 1997 GMC Jimmy.

And as soon as there is no way I'm going to lose power, I might just have to throw some of this rising technology on the mean old WRX.

Originally posted by aava
reply to post by Yell04

 

And what do you say about the multi-billion dollar losses announced at said automakers? If true, this man has certainly got a winning combination on his hands.

Not to go to far off topic, but those "losses" are quite intentional IMO. What better way to beat back organized labor than to show us peons how we're dragging down the economy actually expecting to get paid for our efforts. And before it "goes there," I do not belong to a labor union.

If his technology is as great as it seems to be, do you think the multinational multi-trillion dollar big oil/energy companies will let it go mainstream? OR do you think he will end up dead or missing and his patents gone?? Hummmm.....

This guy is making the mistake that many have made. One of the very few things that qualify Bill Gates as a "genius" is that he realized "good enough is good enough".

I'm sure he could sell 400hp/85mpg engines as fast as he could produce them. He's trying to perfect something, instead of realizing that good enough is good enough.

reply to post by sir_chancealot


I do agree with you, I cant help but feel like this is a well above-par engine and that it should start to be mass produced now; in my own opinion i feel like this is a lot better than the norm so it should be mass produced now to start the savings for the people, and then try to perfect it after.

Fox

Originally posted by sir_chancealot
This guy is making the mistake that many have made. One of the very few things that qualify Bill Gates as a "genius" is that he realized "good enough is good enough".

You're right, but I am not sure that the "built-in obsolescence" that we enjoy today is right. The point is to reduce environmental impact, the "genius" that you ascribe to Mr. Gates is atypical of the attitude that has got us into the crap in the first place.

I recently had to retire a tumble-dryer after 20 years service - only because the motor can no longer be replaced. I retired my previous TV after 14 years service, again, because it couldn't be repaired.

Now, I can expect 4 years service from a TV and maybe 2 or 3 years from a washing machine. Accepted, it can be argued that obsolescence creates change which is good for innovation and advancement, however, a balance has to be struck between the vast waste of resources that we see and the desire to create yet more mobile phones and MP3 players.

Necessity is the mother of invention. It is strange that we managed to promote the genius of *real* invention just a couple of decades ago without having to resort to dumping everything just because a new pointless gadget has been "innovated".

Time was, you could buy a Mercedes Benz and it would run and last "forever". Engineering to be proud of. Now, even the great engineering disciplines are corrupted by fads and the capitalistic need to create disposable items just to create more money.

"good enough" is good enough in a pinch - not something to be lauded though. Do you remember Back To The Future?...

Dr. Emmett Brown: Let me show you my plan for sending you home. Please excuse the crudity of this model, I didn't have time to build it to scale or to paint it.
[reveals intricate tabletop model of the town square]
Marty McFly: [impressed] It's good.

From a strictly conspiratorial point of view... this guy doesn't seem too concerned about his safety. Anyone in the alternative energy\conservation trade independent of any sort of outside funding knows to fear for their safety when going public with this kind of stuff.

What is this? Jack up the price of oil, tease us with alternative energy solutions while we suffer at the pump, and then oh the government and the automotive suddenly embrace this man's idea and save us all from the energy crisi?

Well.... not quite. We're still big oil's bitch that way. They'll just have free reign to jack the price of oil up to astronomical levels and not even bother with fostering any new energy ideas, just to repeat this ridiculous cycle of blood for oil for tolling our every move.

Pardon my French, but # THAT!

Look behind the yippieness of the story.

Originally posted by SugarCube

Originally posted by sir_chancealot
This guy is making the mistake that many have made. One of the very few things that qualify Bill Gates as a "genius" is that he realized "good enough is good enough".

You're right, but I am not sure that the "built-in obsolescence" that we enjoy today is right.

I wasn't quite clear on my original post. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding.

What I meant was not from a planned obsolescence way, but from the standpoint of something that does what I need right now, even in a very flawed way, is better than something that does it perfect 5 years from now. You see my point?

If I need a pen to write a note, better a crappy pen that only fills ink in on half the letters I write, than a pen 5 years from now that writes every letter of the alphabet perfectly.

But you are right in that Microsoft took something that was right FOR IT'S TIME, and continued on it as if that was the only way something could be produced.

Is anyone seriously suggesting that a 400 hp engine, that gets 85 miles per gallon is not useful or desired RIGHT NOW?

Who cares if 85mpg is good enough...it has to get at least 100mpg to be in the contest.

Although it would be interesting to see just what he came up with, it's my understanding that the automobile industries also rely on what has been called: 'Planned obsolesence' which means cars that break down and need repairs. They love their gasoline engines and all the intricate wearable parts that have to go with them.

But, they have also said that some ideas are much too involved for current production standards. Always some lame excuse. It was only a few years ago that some guy had a new engine design that supposedly defied break downs by it's simplicity.

I have heard of electric motors capable of producing far more torque for their input use. It shouldn't be any surprise that an advanced hybrid electric motor and different gearing can make some of this much more likely.

It could be that his car is soo fine tuned that it is not really practicle requiring way too much precision to keep running well over time. This guy is kindof like all of those other hydrogen nuts claiming the impracticle. I speculate nothing will come of his invention just like all the other wide eyed inventors out there.