environmental responsibility and the American Muscle Car

(Jons rant)

In 2006, Ford motors released the 'retro'- bodystyle Mustangs. ( I am carefully confessing here, my own love of excess and the inability to say "No".) I pulled 5 grand out of savings as a down payment and bought the Legend Lime Green model off the lot. I was not completely blind to the fact that I expected more performance than I could appreciate. And so I avoided the huge 8 cylinder motor, & purchased the six. The extremely stiff chassis, the new mustang body was designed to be torsionally stiff even as a convertable, and the front end suspension in particular was a joy to consider. Which I did until the vehicle went to trade in on a Ford truck (I picked up an F150 larado package for towing).

Being a trained high performance driver ( old school custody and escort operations), with a little bit of experience with competition, gives me a sense of participation and appreciation without all the lust and commitment we witness in sports like top_fuel and Nascar. All this to say, I am neither innocent or completely rude about the fact that Americans have had a real and true love affair with high horsepower to weight ratios.

If we continue to accept carbon-chain fuels as a necessary evil, ( gasoline has an enormous amount of chemical energy per kilogram ), there are some technologies that need to be assumed by the paying consumer. No longer can we accept that the dashboard lights do not include _anticipated_fuel_consumption_meters_.

Fuel injection is standardized and the measurement itself is as simple as measuring the fuel manifold pressure and the duty cycle of the injection pulse. Not to make bones about the technology not already being in place, it is important to recognize a few things.

A real time fuel use meter can make people less safe. Distractions from the anticipation of the need to brake and accelerate sharply for safety, could lead to less responsible drivers participating in fuel economy rather than vehicle safety. The other factors involved include things like intake manifold (deck) pressure and temperature, exhaust gas temperature, and atmospheric conditions that are necessary for any computer to appreciate and participate in the environmentally responsible driving experience.

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I sincerly hope that with all the Green Tech and Clean Energy complaints we have been hearing, that people will begin to actually spend their time and money reducing our carbon footprints.

On a second, and perhaps less tolerant note... 80% of engine wear occurs during start and warm up. (this is a little known fact, from the tome of wisdom compiled by hard studied industrial scientists). The solution to the problem is to include a pre-oiler on the block. That is a small electric powered oil pump that runs for a few seconds, to bring the oil pressure up, before the motor begins to turn on its bearings with zero oil pressure, as always during start and warm up. Perhaps if I had seen muscle cars sold with life preserving pre-oilers, I would be less cynical about the fact that no one seems to be buying (or offering) a real time energy use meter in the dashboard lights.

Somebody elses problem, is suddenly my own tho, as I recognize that I haven't myself begun to write software or build sensors to prototype what I am very sure is reasonable technology, that definitely would be a real step forward in responsible stewardship of our environment.

perhaps someone would like to comment or add. thanks, Jon.