Tour de Sol mileage rally

[diamondlarry]

Has anyone here heard of the Tour de Sol rally? If not, it is held once a year in New York with starting points across the country. I'm thinking of entering the 2006 rally. If you go to www.hydrogen-boost.com and click on the newsletter link and choose the June newsletter, you can see Fran Giroux's article on his effort. His "official" mileage was 99.53 mpg. In his article he tells how his actual mileage was 109.1 mpg. Apparently the judges decided that they had used the cents instead of the gallons when figuring the mileage from the receipts. He knew this wasn't the case but since they had tried to dock him for shutting off his engine while moving the day before but couldn't since it wasn't in the rules, he figured they had found another way. Anyway, he has offered to let me use his car for this years's rally. He made such a fuss over this years results that they have banned him from competition. I asked him if transferring his equipment to my car might be a better idea so I wouldn't get disqualified too. I'm waiting on his response. :-) The problem I'll have in entering is that I have no more vacation time until June and the rally is in May which means I would have to do it on a weekend. The problem with that is that it's 722 miles; one way! Thoughts? Recomendations?

[Matt Timion]

Awesome read on that newsletter. I was thinking of entering one of these competitions myself, but it appears that they are geared mainly toward hybrids and alternative fuel vehicles.

Do you know if something like this exists for non-hybrid cars? A while ago I felt that if this site grows enough we could have a race for normal cars with modifications.

If you enter, good luck. I think it would be really cool. If you do enter, would you be opposed to sporting a gassavers.org sticker on your car?

[Compaq888]

I want to see how much that hydrogen boost system gives a mileage boost. Because it's only water, electrodes and electricity.

When I get mine done I'll try it without an electrocyte first to see what kinds of gains it gives.

[diamondlarry]

Do you know if something like this exists for non-hybrid cars? A while ago I felt that if this site grows enough we could have a race for normal cars with modifications.

If you enter, good luck. I think it would be really cool. If you do enter, would you be opposed to sporting a gassavers.org sticker on your car?

They do have a category for people with regular cars. They don't necessarily have to be the Prius/Insight type of hybrid. In fact,I don't think you would even have to have an H2 generator. It seems to me that they considered Fran's car to be in their "most unique vehicle" category. With Fran's experiece though, it seems that someone like me might never win the overall competition. As far as gassavers.org stickers, I could do that. I have already been offered by the administrators of fueleconomytips.com to be sponsored by them so I don't see any reason why your site could be promoted as well. In this case, I think, the more the merrier. :-)

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by diamondlarry

They do have a category for people with regular cars. They don't necessarily have to be the Prius/Insight type of hybrid. In fact,I don't think you would even have to have an H2 generator. It seems to me that they considered Fran's car to be in their "most unique vehicle" category. With Fran's experiece though, it seems that someone like me might never win the overall competition. As far as gassavers.org stickers, I could do that. I have already been offered by the administrators of fueleconomytips.com to be sponsored by them so I don't see any reason why your site could be promoted as well. In this case, I think, the more the merrier. :-)

The more I think about this the more I might want to enter it for this year too. If my upgrades are all done by this I should be getting over 50mpg on a regular basis. The only problem, however, is the long road trip to New York. Wish they had one onthe west coast.

[diamondlarry]

They do have an option where you can go to the start finish line and plot your own course. That is basically what Fran did. The only requirement is that it be at least 150 miles long. I could contact Fran and see if he could give me his route from last year. I heard from James Dunn who is helping to organize next years rally that you have until May 5 to enter. It would be cool to have two cars from gassavers.org. :-)

[SVOboy]

Hey hey, you're forgetting about me...I'm thinking I'll have some more radical stuff then matt dun by then, plus a little less weight, mehbe we can do three GS cars.

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Hey hey, you're forgetting about me...I'm thinking I'll have some more radical stuff then matt dun by then, plus a little less weight, mehbe we can do three GS cars.

The problem of course is the distance. I will have to travel 2000 miles or so to get there. I'm not certain if entering this contest is worth driving for 40 hours. You guys have it much easier, especially SVOBoy.

[diamondlarry]

I've got some ideas in mind that I think would make some good mpg gains but I don't think I'd be done by May. Plus, I'm not sure how to do the one or if it's even possible. I'd like to mount a set of injectors near the throttle body instead of where they are now so it would give the fuel more time to vaporize. I've also been thinking about mounting a set of injectors in a container/box before the throttle body with some baffles and a heat source for better vaporization. The problem with these mods is $'s :-(

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by diamondlarry

I've got some ideas in mind that I think would make some good mpg gains but I don't think I'd be done by May. Plus, I'm not sure how to do the one or if it's even possible. I'd like to mount a set of injectors near the throttle body instead of where they are now so it would give the fuel more time to vaporize. I've also been thinking about mounting a set of injectors in a container/box before the throttle body with some baffles and a heat source for better vaporization. The problem with these mods is $'s :-(

The problem you have with mounting the fuel injectors by the TB is that you would then take away the one injector per cylinder. You'd essentially end up with a carb system.

The solution? ITB. Individual Throttle Bodies. I dont know if you can do this on Saturns, but Honda makes their motorcycle throttle bodies the exact right size to mount one throttle body on each cylinder. All of the racing kids are doing it now (if they can afford it) and they get an extra 30HP out of their 92HP engines because of it.

You could fab up ITB and custom intake manifolds for each cylinder, also with a way to heat each cylinder's intake manifold to assist with vaporization.

THAT would be a cool mod... and easy to install once it's actualy created.