I predict 100 MPG cars in 50 years.

Your joints and his joints didn't read the same manual?

Maybe I go to classier joints?

I'm happy for you. My knees and ankles are okay, in contrast to my old cycling partner whose knees are bad, but my knuckles and elbows started complaining when I was still a young man of rawhide and spring steel riding

50-100 miles in the Oakland hills on a typical Saturday. (Diet made exactly zero difference in that, but always made a difference in my stamina.) Over the years my joints have just become more cantankerous. Even now my legs and lungs can deal with cycling better than my hands and elbows can, especially in cold weather.

Unless there is a real breakthrough, I won't be able to zip my fly in 30 years, maybe less.

Mike

You discovered that your pituitary produces endorphins and it doesn't hurt to look good :)

*chuckle* It hasn't done a thing to improve my looks (well, except for the 12 pounds I lost, that is).

I'm looking forward to being outside more. I look much better when I have color in my skin. Right now I'm as white as a ghost. What bothers me most, and I know there's nothing I can do to reverse it, is my hair receding at the temples and general thinning all over. One look around and I see others, men and women alike who are around my age, trying to cope with this problem. My 14 year old male cat, according to the vet, has the equivalent of male pattern baldness. I think he's coping with it much better than me ;)

By what definition of 100MPG? i.e. what testing cycle? and how many cars, just 1 available, or the fleet average? US or Imperial gallons? on one trip/cycle, or over the lifetime of the vehicle?

There are current production vehicles in the US, if driven properly, that can already (and have) achieved 100 MPG (US gallons), namely a NHW20 Prius (look for the maraton men), and many manual transmission Honda Insight vehicles.

I think you are wrong about the 50 years. We will all be alive when that happens. I will be buying a 2009 3G Prius, which should get 100mpg.

Bill

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:

Back to the original topic, eh? ;-)

I agree. 100 mpg at in-town speeds (say, 45 mph and less) is very much within reach. 100 mpg @ 60 mph is tougher, and 100 mpg @ 75 mph would be a matter for technologies outside hybridization.

I don't know if the 3G Prius will be getting 100 mpg in the EPA cycle, though. Others here know more about that than I do.

Mike

A gallon of what!? If it's a gallon of petrol we've got a /serious/ problem. It had better be a gallon of seawater or urine, or similar, but if it has to be a fossil fuel, a few cubic microns of natural gas burned in a clean electricity generating plant.

Yes, I would bet against a gallon of petrol. Irrevocable trust, my heirs or your heirs. How much?

Davoud