Professor: "A racing car is ultimately the most efficient vehicle on the planet"

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

One man who thinks the motor industry faces a very bleak future indeed is the renowned engineer, Professor Gordon Murray.

...

For the past year, he has been working on a radical design that he claims will shake up the entire industry.

The problem, he says, is that while manufacturers are investing billions of dollars in making cars more efficient, the progress they are making is far too slow.

The reason is simple: Weight.

"Every single new model in a particular market segment is bigger and heavier than the one before," he explains.

"The excuse is always that higher safety standards mean heavier cars.

"But the real reason is that carmakers want to go upmarket and sell bigger, more luxurious cars and make more profit. And heavy cars use more fuel."

Of course, there are alternatives to conventional cars already on the market - electric vehicles, for example, or petrol-electric hybrids.

But Professor Murray thinks a much more fundamental approach is needed; focusing not on how a car is powered, but on how it is actually made.

"If you could take 10% off the weight of every car on the planet overnight, it would make so much more difference than all the new engine technologies and fuel technologies that people are talking about," he says.

So getting rid of weight is a key part of his vision, though there is more to it than that.

...

"We're looking at a vehicle that's less than half the weight of a normal family hatchback, but more importantly, we'll be reducing the CO2 damage by up to two thirds," he says.

It all sounds a world away from his past career in motor racing, where to the casual onlooker fuel is burned like it is running out of fashion and pungent exhaust fumes are all part of the atmosphere.

But Professor Murray believes the two approaches are closely connected.

"A racing car is ultimately the most efficient vehicle on the planet," he explains.

"You're trying to squeeze every last drop of energy out of the fuel, and make the lightest, stiffest structure out of the most advanced materials you can find. The principle is exactly the same."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7387432.stm

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Doesn't sound implausible. Interesting.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Doesn't sound implausible. Interesting.

mawilson will be pleased.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Doesn't sound implausible. Interesting.

mawilson will be pleased.

It must be hard to navigate that Manhattan traffic when the slightest touch of the gas pedal sets the car off at 50mph

[mawilson 2,133]

Doesn't sound implausible. Interesting.

mawilson will be pleased.

It must be hard to navigate that Manhattan traffic when the slightest touch of the gas pedal sets the car off at 50mph