I used to work with a guy who said a friend of his bought a car in the 1950's that got 50 mpg. Apparently it was equipped with an experimental carburator, and the people responsible for that carburator made him give it back. If the technology for 50 mpg were available in the 1950's, I bet we could get pretty good mpg these days. Does anyone have any similar experiences, or know anyone who has? I felt obligated to post on here, since we drive vehicles with some of the worst mpg.

 

Total BS. Never happened.

http://www.mikebrownsolutions.com/fish3.htm

 

That link leads to some interesting reading. The guy who told me this does seem like he enjoys hearing himself talk, just wondering if there were any similar stories. I've been thinking of making my next truck a diesel so that I can convert to using cooking oil as fuel, but I've done some reading and there are some negatives to it, such as filtering food out of used oil, and also smelling like french fries.

 

People usually claim 100 MPG's. I have been hearing these stories all my life.

 

I thought it was the 200 mpg carb....

FWIW, Ford did have a diesel Escort in the early 80s that did better than 40 mpg at 55 mph, especially the 5-speed manual transmission version.

 

A friend has a 70's VW diesel Golf and he gets over 50 mpg and drives it to work daily. He like's to rub it in that he fills up once a month.

Heck my old 88 Cutlass got over 33 mpg.

 

Sounds quite possible with a 4 banger in the Cutlass.

 

They actually put a 4 banger in the Cutlass- the Quad Four to be exact. My girls aunt had one. I remember one day she was at the house and I asked her if she wanted me to check under the hood , she was single at the time. She told me no, it was an Oldsmobile and you don't have to do that. I lifted the hood and checked the oil- there was none on the stick. The two front tires had cord showing and she couldn't believe it. I put 3 qts of oil in it and the she told me she had never had it changed since new. It had 43,000 miles on the factory fill. It didn't last long after the second oil change and she is now driving a Ranger that gets changed every 3 months regardless if she drives it or not. She LOVES her Ranger.

Yeah those 100 mile per gallon carbs worked really good until somebody had to mention thermal dynamics. So far, nobody has been able to change the laws of physics but they keep trying...kinda like running yer engine on water.

 

I didn't know that kind of mpgs were available in the '80's and '70's, that's really good mpg on that diesel golf. I didn't know they made a diesel escort either.

 

Anybody remember the "vapor Jet" from the 70's? (It didn't work either)

 

My first car was a '65 Austin-Healy Sprite (MG Midget), which got close to 40mpg ... 1500 lb car w/ 62 cid 4-banger

 

Yeah I drove an MG once, pretty fun car. I didn't know the gas mileage on them is that good. I guess it should be at about the third the weight of my truck.

 

I'm too young for this thread, lol I'm just joking

 

In the early 70's the Woods Brothers Nascar team had a carburater that got 70 mpg! An oil company bought the patent and that was the end of that.

 

^ Sure they did.