The car was a Guinness record holder set in 1973 in a contest sponsored by Shell Oil Co. and then it disappeared into a museum in Florida.
The mileage from the mostly stock four-cylinder came from heating and insulating the fuel line so the gas entered the engine as lean vapor. Then they drove the car on a closed course at a steady 30 mph. The roof was chopped and the narrowed read axle held hard rubber tires. The interior was stripped of everything but a seat.
A stripped car wouldn't work for a daily driver, but according to Evan McMullen, owner of Seattle-based Cosmopolitan Motors, if the car were made more drivable and lost 200 mpg -- it still would get 176 mpg.
"If this is something they could do back in the 1970s, what happened?" he asked, poring over paperwork, including patents, for the car."Certainly in 34 years we could do something to make this work."
"Here's a car that was 20 years old at the time of the contest that was the project of a couple of guys in a garage," he said. "You can't tell me we can't do better than this with cars today."
More info and photos of the car
seattlepi.nwsource.com
Wow! Shell probably used the contest as a way of finding out what vehicles would hurt their profits. So this little gem was quietly plucked from production, so that oil tycons could become disgustingly rich.
By the way, if you want to find out where some of that oil money has probably gone, check out this website...
http://money.aol.com/special/amazing-dubai-building-photos
I'm not sure that it's the best use of money made off oil, but it sure beats the billions of dollars that fund wars in small countries that are thought to harbor weapons of mass destruction.