Petrol Prices Mean Fuel Efficient Driving

Off topic I know, but.......

Lorry drivers complain about the fuel prices (I don't want to get into all that here!). So why then are LGV's designed to be as aerodynamic as a brick? It seems to me they are the worst possible shape, aerodynamically-speaking!

So there must be a law or rule that dictates the design...

My dad fitted an su to a blown alfa 1750 just after the war and doubled its economy without loss of speed, he used a hand carved block of wood as the adapter.

I used to get 40 mpg from a very old austin A40 over 30 years ago, it had never been set up in any way at all in the previous few owners for certain, let alone seen a timing light or co device (were they around then?) as I have said before, what have the advances 'really' been in recent years? yes things are faster in general, but that is really about all that is actually greater.

interesting statistic: a cheetah can get to 60mph in about 4 seconds, damn few cars (no road cars?) can outrun that, so what is so clever about all our technology?

Considering my Capri averages 37 MPG which is more than I got out of a

2L Mk1 Mondeo, I'd have to agree.

Overall maximum vehicle length which is why you don't see bonneted cabs in this country very much and those that are here are limited in the length of trailer they can pull.

In addition to that, the engines sit quite high and you've got the chassis which is a good few feet off the floor to work around when designing a cab with sufficient room for the driver. If you were to take a cross section of an artic unit, you'd find there's not a lot of space there under the cab floor.

Can anyone remember what a 1300 MKII Escort used to get mpg wise please?

All the best ..

T i m

Mid 30's. There's one guy running a tuned one on bike carbs that claims to get no lower than high 20's thraping it and high 30's normal driving.

When I switched my 1.6 xflow to CBR600 carbs (from a single DGV weber), my MPG went from low 20's to mid-20's. Not what I was expecting from 4 carbs and loads more power..

Ok thanks. I'm trying to judge just how f*d this 1300 in the kitcar is. It has had Luminition in there for most of the 18 years it's been in this form so the timing should be ok but I'm pretty sure the rocker faces are well worn so the valve timing goes out fairly quickly. I'll have to do some compression tests with the existing lump and the one I picked up recently (eBay and where the gearbox came from) and go from there.

Hmm.

Well I'm sure the lack_of aerodynamics can't help nor the extra weight but it's pretty low geared and I've been trying to go easy on the right foot.

I think I'll just carry on with the basic stuff I'm doing (like brakes, wheels / tyres, seats, paint etc) with the thought of an electric conversion later on.

All the best ..

T i m

No, indeed. I think I've got a basic single choke carb on there atm (that might appreciate a service?) and I noticed the eBay lump had a twin choke Weber (is it?). I wonder what would happen if I put an SU on there? ;-)

Years ago a mate 'worked on' his 1300S MK 1 Fiesta. 5 speed XR2 box, blueprinted, gas-flowed, stage 2 cam etc etc. Driven hard it would drink the juice but pottering about I remember him getting quite an increase in mpg.

All the best ..

T i m

I'll

IIRC about 70,000 miles was about (give or take) the time that the Kents started to breathe heavily from the oil filler. Lip dodger rings or a re-bore being the order of the day! The bottom end usually out did the top end I think.

Julian.

Ah the 1300 MkII we used as the donor had 88k on it I think? However, I have no idea if that was the original engine or not etc.

Is that like the cord rings (was it?) that I fitted to the Fiat 850 I bought seized for a fiver when I was 15! ;-)

Ok and thanks Julian.

The engine in the kitcar has been in there from when we (the wife and I) built it 18 years ago and about the only thing we have done to it was pop the top off and grind the valves in (well, I let her do that actually and she loved it!?).

But also it hasn't done *loads* of miles since we have had it as it has always been our second car and typically used for carting the dogs up the park or running stuff about (the back seats fold down easily and make it into a little van and it has a Land Rover style built-on roof rack that will easily take 3 sheets of 8x4 3/4" MDF (probably unofficially))? ;-)

I have a 1600 Kent that would pop in there easily and even the 2L Pinto out of my Sierra Estate (not quite so easy but one of the accepted lumps) but I'm holding off with either because of higher insurance and road tax costs for possibly it being just parked up much of the time. The final though is that our daughter is nearly 18 and after taking her bike test at the end of the month may want to take her car test and use the 1.1 H reg Festa she's probably been given (if we can afford to ensure it), then once she's comfortable driving in general would like to take on the kitcar.[1]

All the best ..

T i m

[1] She's trying to get into Tree Surgery via an apprenticeship and eventually be a climber, so I thought the Jeep style kitcar (it looks just like a hard top SJ410) + my 6'6" 1/2 tonne goods trailer [2] with cage sides / top added might make a good starting setup for her (for the smaller jobs anyway). [2] That I also made nearly 30 years ago and is also still going strong! ;-)

A damn sight more than my 1100 MKII Escort used to get - mid 20's.

And that was with the 'economy carburettor' option too. Pah. You had to thrash it just to keep up with the traffic...

I took it for a 'speed run' with three of us in it on a long flat straight road. It wouldn't even do 70mph.

Did oi larf...

Damn.

Well that's the thing with small or low powered engines running with more powerful stuff. If we all took 30 seconds to get to 60 things might be different ?

Even the Ranger will do 70 and that's built like a shed!

I bet you did Paul. We were doing similar ones in a mates 850 Mini. We did hit the 70 down a hill only to (then) discover the drum brakes weren't up to the job either. We coasted out onto a fairly fast junction still doing about 30 mph .. it wasn't just burnt brake linings you could smell!

One of our junior Engineers had one of the MK3 Escorts that had the 'economy lights' on the dash. I'm not sure you could actually accelerate without bringing the amber light on and the red would come on in a decent headwind? :-(

Somewhere I've got a picture of the gearbox laying next to the remains of the car after he ran it into a lamp post. :-(

All the best ..

T i m

1100 Escort Mk2 popular Plus - yup 27mpg cos you had to thrash it to keep up with the traffic.

url: