|
Registered Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 211
Country: United States
|
Addicted to peace and efficiency
Im long winded and will talk forever, no honey I'm not cheating on you, Im really standing in front of the shop chin wagging with my friends, so here goes. Ever since discovering Gas Savers I have found peace while driving, Im competative as hell and love to race, alittle Auto Cross and SCCA stuff, If I had the time and money I would do it for a living. Now the problem I had was turning off the kill switch, I used to drive on the street like I did on the track, the balance of adheasion, engine torque curves, all that stuff. I love stat charts and would generate power curve charts on my computer to chart my power flow looking for the line of perfect power and efficiency. Now all this generated allot of stress, especially when you have a 9 to 5 commute and you imagine yourself in a Le Mans car blasting down the Nurburgring at 240, thank you Walter Mitty.
Now enter Gas Savers and my use of efficiency in racing has been ftransformed to efficency in mileage. I like to do the P&G thing, much like throttle steering in a car around a corner, it gives that flying an air plane feel, your balancing all your controls and feeling the engines responce, its allot of fun. Perhaps the greatest gift is the relaxation, Im not checking my mirrors every 3 seconds looking for cops from behind me, or parked along the side of the road, or watching every entering vehicle on an on ramp to see if they may be an unmarked highway patrol. It's great, I cruise now and after doing MPG research with the Solstice' MPG commputer I have found that my mileage threashold is below 70 MPH, so I'll set my cruise control to 68 and just enjoy the ride. I draft semi's, hang out in the slow lane or next to the slow lane and come back from a drive relaxed.
Now I dont know what it is but I have been into the efficiency thing my whole life, when I was younger I needed a car that got great gas mileage, because I was broke. As I got older I feel into the mash the peddle mentality of driving to work, but I always tinkered with the car and sometimes by accident I would do mods to a car that would generate better mileage. Different things in life and situations dictated the car I drove. I had a Ford Explorer that got terrible mileage, then I put the right tires on it, fixed the thermostat, tweaked some other stuff and got 26 Hwy. I also had a 57 Chevy with a 396 and after allot of mods got 18 MPG out of it. Little triumphs, but then the Volkswages I have had are listed at 26 mpg and I would always coax 31 to 34 mpg out of a bug with mods.
I love to drive, my current job involves allot of driving to new locations every month as a fraud investigator, my new job will have me working in the municipal water field with a company truck, so I will have a goal of getting a 3/4 ton work truck to get good mpg, eventhough the company pays for the gas. One job I had driving I did burn out on was cross country truck driving, I did it for a year and a half and it burned me out, its like you never reach the finish line.
Now on to evil oil, in less than 100 years we have gone from horses, ships, and trains, to cars and planes. We love out computers (If it woulden't be for Gas Savers and the internet, we would be looking in the back of Popular Mechanics for fuel aerators, instead of forming a like minded MPG community here on the web.) our phones take pictures, hop on the web, play music, and show us movies. We are a culture that is plugged in now and we pay for that priviledge of evolution. Ever since a cave man traded an animal skin for food, there has always been a motive for profit. Much like the latest stock market crash, people in power and people trying to make a millon have looked for the next new thing. This oil thing has been big and ridiculously profitable for years, it has now grown into a monster and pure and simple greed has made us pollute the planet, change politics to support governments to feed wallets and hold back new technology, so vested governemts can run the oil profit machine until the very last drop.
Look at GM, they will sell SUV's until people stop buying them, until people can't afford to put gas in them. Its greed directed business, its not whats best for the world, but what is most profitable. Big oil runs governments and this mamoth is running out of money, all those lobbyists, executives, and people in suits and mansions have to figure out a way to keep business running, while the giant is dieing.
The environment has taken so many hits, we have pushed our garbage away so far to the point where we are having it pushed back by the next guy who is pushing away his garbage. There is even land fill excavators who are putting together companys to dig through land fills that are 20 years old to havest the plastic. In the center of all our oceans are huge pools of swirling plastic bags, the fish are eating them, their stomach acids are breaking down the plastic and the petro chemicles digested are giving the fish cancer. I used to love Salmon, I make it with dill weed, 5 island pepper, and garlic, its one of my favoites, but now the Salmon polulation from fertilizer run off and plastic bag digestion are rampant with liver cancer. Hell one of my favorite fishes I dont eat anymore.
Is there a bright side to all of this, yes, the world machine has to adapt to keep profitable, green efficient everything, that fantasy Star Trek existence of zero pollution energy will have to be invented, without it we'll eat ourselves. Driving efficiently has given me great peace and knowing that one by one were helping the Earth and its people advance to become a better place. That is why I seek higher gas mileage, its a mentality and lifestyle.
Oh yes, filter your water, most tap water systems just make the minimum in keeping you from getting bacteria. All that pesticide run off, PCB's, and cancer causing agents cant be filtered out by conventional tap water systems.
|
Linear Mode
