MoonBeam - the DIY 100 MPG Car

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze6omtd/jorysquibb/index.html

All you ever wanted to know about building a 100 mpg car but were too afraid to ask!

Jory Squibb lays it all out here - a 1000 hours DIY project - $2500 in parts from used Honda scooters. Looking at how simple this is, I wonder why the automobile companies are not picking up on this trend.

"If we were to keep track of how we use our cars on a weekly basis, it might become clear that we are often using a large car when we could be using a very small car. Getting groceries, picking up kids, going to the doctor's--these are often errands which don't take us far from home, or require more than 40MPH. Perhaps we could substitute a tiny car, a sort of enclosed motorscooter for these situations--a microcar."

Specially in USA, there seems to be a craze for useless horsepower. Look at the median family sedans - the horsepower has gone up from about 125 in early 90s to 240 now. Yet, if you look at traffic patterns in major urban areas, the average speed on highways and city roads has been reducing every year due to congestion. Where do you get to use this horsepower - the speed limits have not changed - and fast acceleration is a sure way of attracting cops' attention.

Same thing has happened to motorcycles. While anywhere else in the world you will see the average street bikes in the 100 - 250 cc range, in USA they talk about 600 cc bikes as a starter bike - the desirable one being more in the 1000 cc plus range.

Tags: 100 mpg, gasoline, gas prices, petrol, oil, honda, motorcar, scooter, motorcycle, automobile, green car, environment, conservation