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Ford Engineer Builds Street-Legal, 125 MPG Hybrid in His Garage

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Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
05/10/09

In reply to Ford Engineer Builds Street-Legal, 125 MPG Hybrid in His Garage
I thing Otis Peabody said it best...

"It looks like an airplane, without wings."
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frigg
05/09/09

In reply to Ford Engineer Builds Street-Legal, 125 MPG Hybrid in His Garage
What does it say that the "Ford efficiency expert" has enough spare time to make a car in his garage?

Either they're not giving him enough to do, or he makes really efficient use of his time.
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Serolf Divad
05/09/09

In reply to Ford Engineer Builds Street-Legal, 125 MPG Hybrid in His Garage
That's very cool, but keep in mind that "street legal" means different things whether we're talking about home-builts or production cars.
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madog
05/09/09

In reply to Ford Engineer Builds Street-Legal, 125 MPG Hybrid in His Garage
More proof that the current lineup of fuel efficient vehicles are bullshit. They have the technology to make something better than 35mpg. Well, they actually have before, but that was killed off.

Keep your tinfoil hats on.
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UlbrechtHawk
05/09/09

In reply to Ford Engineer Builds Street-Legal, 125 MPG Hybrid in His Garage
Is that a headlight or a machine-gun port in the nose? If it's the latter, sign me up!
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bosskev
05/09/09

@UlbrechtHawk: To achieve its levels of speed and efficiency, I was assuming it was some kind of deflector array.
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bosskev
05/09/09

In reply to Ford Engineer Builds Street-Legal, 125 MPG Hybrid in His Garage
Street-legal? Looks more like Fleshbot-legal. King-size.
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Nick
05/09/09

In reply to Ford Engineer Builds Street-Legal, 125 MPG Hybrid in His Garage
dan i hate to do this, but it's not a hybrid. it's a hypermiler.

/dips, ducks, dodges, dives, and dodges
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Charles Ip
05/09/09

@867-5309_Nick: I think dodge went first... it's dodge dip duck dive dodge.

And its a motorcycle, not a car, for anyone who cares. I recall reading about a person competing against someone else on a bicycle, seeing who would spend more on fuel (food/gas). The motorcycle guy won.

I think streets should be made more motorcycle friendly, and scooter friendly. Then, I'll ride a motorcycle. Then again, I'm in Canada. 5 months of biking a year.
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Pretolo
05/09/09

@Charles Ip:

Maybe if you feed the bicycles with caviar... I call bullshit on that bicycle vs motorcycle cost...

Bicycle is a much more efficient system (probably 1-5% energy loss in the drivetrain... TOPS)... and human muscle is very efficient energy conversion (heats up much less than a motor)...

Did they take into account the food that the motorcycle guy had to eat as well? After all the bicyclist is eating for propulsion and human body uses a lot of energy for upkeep regardless of the propulsion needs.

Rice (which is perfect bike fuel) is pretty damn cheap too... 20lb/$10...
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wagnerrp
05/09/09

@867-5309_Nick: You are correct, it runs directly off the 250cc motor so it is not a hybrid. However this has nothing to do with hypermilling. Hypermilling is the practice of driving in a highly irregular manner in order to achieve high efficiency. The numbers quoted here were just standard highway mileage.
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Kaiser-Machead
05/09/09

@Pretolo: I also wonder how long/short term this test was. Food expenses can vary greatly from where you shop, and if the cyclist is getting the majority of his food from the local Shoprite instead of Whole Foods or Gristedes, he's likely spending less. Also, the cost of maintenance and insurance on the motorcycle must be taken into account.

No one is going to convince me that riding a motorcycle is cheaper overall than a bicycle for daily commute.
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Nick
05/09/09

@wagnerrp: hypermiling, i'm sure, has no standard definition so i won't debate the point. i got the the hypermiler directly from the description of the ebay listing.
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