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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!mmm!mrgofor
From: mrgofor@mmm.UUCP (MKR)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: 55MPH-save gas?
Message-ID: <574@mmm.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 27-Feb-86 12:04:42 EST
Article-I.D.: mmm.574
Posted: Thu Feb 27 12:04:42 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Mar-86 03:31:57 EST
References: <424@cubsvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: mrgofor@mmm.UUCP (MKR)
Organization: none
Lines: 34
Summary: 

In article <424@cubsvax.UUCP> das@cubsvax.UUCP (David Sassoon) writes:
>
>   All this debate on the 55mph limit made me wonder whether
>claims made by the "government" were ever verified.  I
>remember that the lower speed limit had 'dramatically' reduced
>gas consumption.  Although the original intention was to save
>lives (which I think was well demonstrated) this second boon
>resulted.  
>
>David

	You have it backwards - the 55Mph limit was instigated as a result
of the Arab oil embargo in order to save fuel. If you think about it, it
should be obvious that slower speeds save fuel. After about 40mph, wind
resistance becomes the single most influential parameter affecting fuel
efficiency. You can make cars more efficient than others over an entire
range of speeds, but I fail to see how you can make it more efficient at
65mph than at 55mph. Face it - the faster you go, the more wind resistance
there is for ANY shape of car (up to Mach 1 :-)). The only way to do it
would be to change the gearing in order to make it happen that way, but then
you're not making the higher speeds more efficient so much as crippling
the lower speeds.

	All you people out there who doubt that slower speeds are more
fuel efficient, please post an article explaining just *how* that can
be so. Perhaps you're right, but it is counter-intuitive, and I don't
see how it can be true that faster speeds are more efficient.


-- 
					--MKR

When in Rome, do as the ancient Etruscans used to do before they
became extinct because of the things they used to do.