60 MPG Hummer?

[bzipitidoo]

This is a magazine article about a guy who is taking a Hummer and replacing the conventional powertrain with a turbine and electric motor hybrid combo. Supposedly the Hummer will get 60 MPG and do 0 to 60 in 5 seconds. Is this for real? I suspect the magazine "sexed it up" a tiny little bit.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/...d-messiah.html

[SVOboy]

ZugyNA posted this a while back. I'll believe it when I see it, I guess? Not to say it can't be done, because you can do a lot with a lot of money and unlimited time, I just don't see it as a positive future to look to for transportation and thus am not confounded by its magnificence.

[Silveredwings]

[edit: <sarcasm_on>]
GM could use the design to save save the Hummer product line. They could make $Billions getting better FE than a Prius. The Army could save tons of fuel retrofitting their HMMMMMWV's. Heck, Civic owners could use the same design and get over 9,000 MPG. Maybe even pigs could fly. Where can I invest in this scheme?
[edit: </sarcasm_off>]

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by Silveredwings

GM could use the design to save save the Hummer product line. They could make $Billions getting better FE than a Prius. The Army could save tons of fuel retrofitting their HMMMMMWV's. Heck, Civic owners could use the same design and get over 9,000 MPG. Maybe even pigs could fly. Where can I invest in this scheme?

I know that there are some great ideas on GasSavers, and that often times we think of things that the engineers overlooked, or just didn't want to spend the money on.

I am a bit weary, however, when a mechanic is able to outsmart GM engineers with 100 year old technology.

that's right... the type of hybrid he is building is reminiscent of the diesel/electric cars from the early 1900s.

[GasSavers_maxc]

Has anyone on this forum personally know an inventor who had a high mileage system? ...You can't imagine the suppression they go though!

[skewbe]

I understand the supression factor, drove me nuts that folks refused to believe me that I got 50mpg in my saturn. But I said exactly what I was doing and how I did it and wasn't fishing around for $30,000 clients.

However, having done that reliably in a saturn, I can say that there is nothing in the mess of verbiage that explains what is so special about this arrangement, so we are left to speculate as to how accurate the claims are. No mention of using a plug-in (cheating by recharging from the grid) was mentioned, the fuel consumption and power output of the turbine was not mentioned, and the tires are assumed to be stock, no aero mods. No actual working hummer, no mention of good driving non-braking driving technique, just John "send your checks to me" Goodwin speculating about how glorious it WILL be.

So if there is a trick, he is not saying what it is. If there isn't a trick, he isn't saying WHY it works in this article. This does not pass peer review, his claims are false until he can demonstrate a working 60mpg hummer and others can replicate it. That's how it works, put the suv pipe dream away, there's no silver bullet to be found here until the burden of proof has been met.

[8307c4]

It takes a certain amount of power to animate 3 thousand pounds past a standstill, more still to fight the wind with a vehicle that has slightly better aerodynamics than a billboard.

Recharging from the grid is not energy free, half of all our electricity is produced with coal and petrol, who is cheating who here?

I call it hype, but that's just me.

[CoyoteX]

Stuff like this is one of the reasons people still buy giant trucks and suvs. They think that someone will come along and figure out how to modify their gas hog into something that gets 60mpg and they can just buy it and bolt it on to fix their mileage without giving up anything.

When that happens wont we all look foolish

[Nerds laugh at me]

UC Davis professor Andy Frank and his students have taken a GM Suburban and converted into a hybrid. They get 30+ MPG.
The H2 Hummer is built on the same chassis - so essentially it is just a blocky version of the Suburban.
60 MPG ?
Hmmm.

[Erdrick]

Matt: I think you mean "leery"... Weary is kind of like... well, being tired.

Anything that sounds too good to be true is just that. May the Hummer rot in hell... or on the driveway of the idiot who bought it.