100 mpg car in the 70's. what happened with this?

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Cutehumor

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Last night, I was bored. So I was watching this documentary called "gashole" on netflix streaming. They were exploring why we are still stuck driving combustion engines that typically won't exceed 40mpg. they talked about a 100mpg car invented by Tom Ogle in the 1970's who used gasoline vapors to run an engine. He mysteriously died at the age of 24 and his invention went away. Some speculated it was the oil companies who wanted him dead. I found a website about this. anyone know anything about this?

http://fuel-efficient-vehicles.org/energy-news/?page_id=787
 
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Smokey Yunick ? had a Fiero that ran on super lean fuel vapors by super heating the intake manifold.
 
Two things. 1000lbs of airbags and structural reinforcement have made the smallest cars today weigh as much as midsize cars from the 80's. At the same time peoples expectations for performance have gone insane. My 4cyl Highlander has more torque and horsepower than v8's from 20 years ago and most people would consider it under powered.

All gas engines run on gasoline vapor, that's why the injector has a nozzle.
 
I am sure the oil companies wanted that guy dead. We all know that it would have made no sense to buy the invention for a few million dollars and make billions themselves.

So his engine ran on "gasoline vapor?" So do hundreds of millions of others. It is like the phrase "cash money." It is a bait phrase that fraudsters use.

Those evil oil companies also throttled all the free energy devices you see on YouTube, cooked up in guy's garages.

If not for the evil power companies, we would all be getting free, unlimited, electricity.

What you need to do is look at those YouTube videos and give some of those guys $100,000.00 and buy stock. I am sure that will be profitable for someone.

It actually would not be all that hard for a totally stripped down modern car to get that kind of mileage, if you removed all smog equipment too, and gave up any high performance requirements. It would not be street legal and if it was, few would buy it.
 
there was a guy here in MI that designed a system that took fumes, compressed them, and reinjected them into the cylinder to be burned. He would get over 70MPG. Rumor is Ford bought the idea from him for a few milli and squashed it dead in its tracks.
 
Most will chalk this up to hoax or conspiracy whatever. There are many stories of innovative revolutionary designs that seemingly quietly disappear with easy explanations of course. The general mass of public like to believe that we live in a world where the entities they trust the most would never lie to them.

You only have to ask yourself one question. If there was a global need for an item that touched every facet of modern civilized life virtually enslaving them to depend on this product, that employed millions of people to obtain it, process it and sell it, the yielded unbelievable and even obscene amounts of revenue...enough to buy virtually anything for anyone on the planet...

...and then, suddenly you reduced the need for this item by 1/2 or 1/4 or more...

People are willing to do anything for money. Money = Power...Lie, cheat, steal and kill are not a problem for these people. To protect their acquired power is a way of life. If you don't believe this fact about human behavior you have had your head in the sand since birth.
 
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No, if there really were such an invention, the oil and power companies would fight each other tooth and nail for rights to buy it.

If what you imply was the case, then typewriter companies should have been sending out hit men to bump off the pioneers of the computer industry. But they were not.
 
Originally Posted By: Cristobal
No, if there really were such an invention, the oil and power companies would fight each other tooth and nail for rights to buy it.

If what you imply was the case, then typewriter companies should have been sending out hit men to bump off the pioneers of the computer industry. But they were not.


Delusion at its best.
 
Pretending for moment that the conspiracy was true; that oil companies wanted to keep oil consumption high. Is that still true today? BP advertises itself as "Beyond Petroluem" (I thought I saw a commercial for that). Certainly they have a decent idea as to how much oil is left in the ground--and how fast we are pumping it out--and how long it takes the incremental mpg gains in vehicles sold today to actually impact fuel sold tomorrow.

In short, I have to wonder if oil companies might actually not be against high mpg vehicles, if only because it might let them stay in business longer. Help them support more people purchasing their fuel, and for longer. Many future customers in the growing overseas markets.
 
Originally Posted By: dwcopple
there was a guy here in MI that designed a system that took fumes, compressed them, and reinjected them into the cylinder to be burned. He would get over 70MPG. Rumor is Ford bought the idea from him for a few milli and squashed it dead in its tracks.


Right. There is so much in that statement, where to begin?

Fumes. All (gasoline) engines run on vaporized gasoline AKA "fumes".

And just where did the energy come from to compress the fumes?

And Ford squashed it. Are you saying that Ford doesn't want to sell a 70 MPG car??
 
Is "Spock" posting under another name here? I heard the 100 MPG carb is locked away in the same vault as the 150 mpg fuel injector. Ya can teach almost anything but good judgement. Yes, our expections and requirements have risen. A new V6 Camry "family car" has almost 270 honest HP and gets very good milage. Take one for a spin, you'll be surprised at the power. Since fuel consumption by military vehicles has won or lost battles and finally wars, if there was a way to double the milage of an M1A1, for example, someone would be doing it. It's a life or death issue.
 
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Originally Posted By: supton
In short, I have to wonder if oil companies might actually not be against high mpg vehicles, if only because it might let them stay in business longer. Help them support more people purchasing their fuel, and for longer. Many future customers in the growing overseas markets.

+1
There is too much competition in the oil industry to even hint at conspiracy. Any conservation goes towards conserving the longevity of the suppliers...
 
Let's put it this way, do oil companies want to be in business for 20 years before running out of product or 50 years? I'll bet on the 50. SO, why would they sell off their raw material any sooner than they had to? Pity the "Arab" world when the dino juice runs out. (Oh yeah)
 
everyone wants to believe they are getting cheated by 'the man'. the story of the 100mpg carb has been around since, well, forever. my Dad used to tell that 'story he heard' back in the '70's.
 
I remember this story too while working at my Dad's ESSO Gas Station back in the early 70's(IIRC, this was the period of time), not the late 60's. Gas was really cheap in that time period; before the Arab Oil Embargo/OPEC stories. I used Premium in my '68 LeSabre w/BUICK 350cid/4bbl.

We always talked about the 100 MPG Carb and every one of my Dad's buddys had a version of their own story, as many of these guys worked at Rochester Products/Div. of GM, makers of the Rochester Carb's and Q-Jets.

So many stories in fact that I could put'em all together and make my own documentary.
 
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I too watched that movie when bored one night. They were pretty convincing - almost needed a tinfoil hat!

I don't see how some other inventor in one of the other dozens of countries that require oil/gas to thrive wouldn't have come up with the same solution if it ever existed. Neat story, though.
 
This has been posted before. I think it is under the title of the Pogue carburetor.

It is simple Chemistry/Physics. You can not get more energy out of something that isn't already present. If one molecule of gasoline mixed with oxygen produces "X" amount of energy, it doesn't matter too much whether it is a liquid or vapor. Most of the energy from internal combustion energy goes out the tail pipe, or is lost in heat.
 
All these responses seem so very narrow in scope. If any of you have studied history & know a little about human behavior is that it repeats itself over and over and over again. Sure the setting changes a bit as technology evolves but the principals and story is the same.

Oil is the flavor of the century..or two. In the past it was gold or other precious items, or power of commerce or armies or even population. Until a more broad picture is processed we will continue to repeat.

Oil is not about to run out, not in the next few centuries anyways. I can look out my front window and see 3 wells with a km of each other. They were not there a month ago. For decades oil companies have been drilling and capping drilling and capping. Not pumping it out at all. Its all over the US and Canada. The great north Alaska and Territories have more oil than any of us can mentally process. I have talked to many oil reps and they are finding new reserves every day...huge ones. If you believe that it is about to run out you are simply not believing what is right in front of you.
 
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