A buck now buys five miles

[baravelli]

We on the west coast will never see fuel for less than $3.00 a gallon again. The weak US Dollar and public policy against developing existing domestic energy resources means a buck now buys five miles for most of us over here. A tankful of $3.45 Stockton Chevron 89 octane for $58.00 will get you 400 miles for 6.9 miles per dollar. A tankful of $2.80 Mexicali Fina 89 octane for $47.00 will get you 480 miles for 10.3 miles per dollar.
The future is not better. With certain passage of national and state Global Warming legislation, todays Hemi Charger will go away in three years like the original did.
My company is right now modifying hundreds of Fords and Chryslers to improve safety and fuel consumption. There are proven, low cost strategies and modifications to increase engine efficiencies and performance.
Right now, yer payin', what? $1700.00 a year fer gas fer what ya paid $1200.00 three years ago. Is this a performance topic? You tell me.

[machelis]

89 Octane? What about 87?

[starshooter10]

yeap...

im from santa rosa (N-bay)

and it's a joke....

and to think i want to buy a truck that gets about 10mpg +_O

[fordinator]

ethanol

[baravelli]

89 Octane? What about 87?
Depends on where your car is at. I know these cars will burn 87 Octane and I know what 87 Octane is made of (or not made of). For the on average 12 cents or 3% more I always burn 89 Octane in everything for the extra 3-5% MPG. The car is lean as is.
ethanol
Corn syrup is the wrong feel good solution of the decade. Ford e-Flex Panthers provide 13 MPG city/17 MPG highway. Mine gets 19 MPG on Iowa e85 and I paid more for it. Buy all the Doritos you can fit into your pantry. The bushel price for corn will double in three years.

[steevil]

fuel milage is less on alcohol. if you count up all the land use, fertilizer and pestcides, water use and soil errosion, this is really going to cost us.the politicians are not thinking this thing though. i predict much higher prices and shortages in the short term . the long term dosent look much better.

[ACDII]

There is WAY too much push for ethanol. They should be pushing for more soydiesel instead. More output per bushel of diesel from soy than ethanol from corn. Bio D is also a much cleaner burning fuel, and NO conversions are needed to run it in existing diesel engines, except for those who have the older rubber hoses, bio D eats rubber. It is also much less expensive to make, with some proposed plants showing over 300% btu output-input ratios. Compare that to the 34% of ethanol from corn. You can grow more soy per acre than corn too. Yep they are looking in the wrong direction concerning renewable fuel.

[starshooter10]

people keep on loooking for way to get aroubnd the use of OIL

when it seems to me that E85 and BD cost more =-P

and the BD dosn't seem like it burns cleaner +_O

why don't se start looking for an alternitive to petrol based engines?

*LPG comes to mind*


i don't think hybrids BD or E-85 are the answer....

but i wish that CA would stop taxes the #$%#$ outa my gas...

[baravelli]

The May issue of Popular Mechanics compares fuel costs for various types of fuels. Coast-to-coast drive would be $60 for coal (electricity); $110 for natural gas; $213 for gasoline; $231 for biodiesel; $425 for E85/ethanol; $619 for M85/methanol; $804 for hydrogen. (NYTimes; May 27, 2006)
bio-diesel, liquified coal gas, compressed methane, butanol, acetone, hydrogen-peroxide

[1999_M75]

people keep on loooking for way to get aroubnd the use of OIL

when it seems to me that E85 and BD cost more =-P

and the BD dosn't seem like it burns cleaner +_O

why don't se start looking for an alternitive to petrol based engines?

*LPG comes to mind*


i don't think hybrids BD or E-85 are the answer....

but i wish that CA would stop taxes the #$%#$ outa my gas...

You really are a moron. Just what do you think the "P" in LPG stands for?

[JCG1]

$1 does not buy ME 5 miles.
I need a couple more quarters; and THAT's with 93 at $3.00 or so.

Stick THAT in your flowmasters and smoke it.

[steevil]

san francisco international airport allows cng fuel cabs to skip the pick up line one time per shift. this is an big advantage for a cabbie and makes up for the lack of range. ford makes a cng crown vic and the airport administration owns several. i'm waiting for them to come up for sale .going to have to bid top dollar though cuz them cabbies are waiting too.

[iMPY]

Hank Hill says: "P is for Propane."

but what of the accessories.

there is no easy cure to our energy woes, unfortunately, else we would be doing things different right now :(

[Jesse]

and the BD dosn't seem like it burns cleaner +_O


yes it does. Burning 100% biodiesel reduces CO2 emissions by 75% over #2 fuel

[baravelli]

North America is sitting on thirty years of oil. Out in the west, it oozes out of tar pits. We got it, we can't refine it because no new oil refineries are online. Canadians are playing in oil sand are building two pipelines to Texas. We have the finest oil shale in the world. There is probably more.

[steevil]

yes and more in the deep ocean . trouble being that the greeners wont let you get to it. the oil companies will gladly drill holes, run pipelines and build refineries but, nobody wants one in his back yard.

[JCG1]

Chico, what you need to do is stop wasting your time selling dubious performance equipment to gullible law enforcement and other government agencies and instead invent a refinery that fits into my trunk (instead of my back yard :lol3:

I pull up to a little oozing crude . . . or a tanker full on the side of a street . . . a homeless dude shovels it in for a couple bucks . . .

[baravelli]

Hey! We are proud of the 180° Isreali ihermostats and Walker Ultraflows.
Hydrogen Peroxide. Easy to use. Cheap to make. Chinese are using it. Chinese don't care if H2O2 sunburns Arctic penguins.
Just paid $3.45 a gallon for 89 octane (mid-grade) Unocal (Conoco-Phillips). Wouldn't hurt so much except it is gawd-awful fuel (summer gas).

[Bonedriver]

Guys... problem is not in quantity... it's in Capacity... not a singel new refinery has been built in the past ten years or more years. Until we get the capacity to refine more oil prices will continue to climb...

[JCG1]

Hence my request for trunk-mounted refinery technology . . .

Ok, pie in the sky you say?

How about if we figure out a way to make 300 hp to the wheels . . .

using sunburned penguins.

[baravelli]

Sun burned penguins? Bio-diesel. With so many fat Americans I suppose it is only a matter of time before we 'recycle' humans as well.
300 RWHP? Superchargers and Turbines. The internal combustion engine is the second most efficent air=heat powerplant. The external combustion engine is first. Remember Craig Breedlove or the Saab 'jet cars' from the sixties? With quieter fans and constant velocity transmissions nowadays, how fast do you wanna go? Your 1/4 mile ET's will suck.
One third of world oil is purchased with American dollars. A decade ago, over two thirds. As the United States and its dollar continue to decline, all commodities are going to get more expensive.

[steevil]

another 2 cents yesterday. the guy dont even take the ladder away from the sign anymore. that gas station price sign is and always will be a thermometer of how badly the country is being run. all incumbant politicians must go!

[baravelli]

I hope I am vital enough to participate in the next revolution.
The Energy Department is to dole four billion dollars this year and eight billion next year for alternative fuel development. My favorite is the ion-gas plasma generator. No home should be without one.

[starshooter10]

i think hydrogen fuel cells with a CVT will be the future...

[73coupe]

For years I've been hearing refineriers are running at capacity

in reality they are not there is a large refinery 7 miles from me it has been at 50% production for 20 years since Shell sold it
seems to change owners every 3 years now

90 miles north the refinery there has been at 60% production for 30 years

gas prices are high not because of production limits or price of crude oil but because of greed.
alternative fuuel source has been around for damn near 100 years
diesel engines were first designed to run on peanut oil
petrolem based diesel was cheaper to make at the time

oil companies don't want other energy sources they want money
whose in the back pockets of oil companies polititcians doesn't matter if they are democrat or republican90% of them are corrupt

[steevil]

the oil boys must have found some way to own the ethanol industry or they would not be pushing it right now. ethanol will be heavily subsidized by tax payers all the way from the seed to the pump and then again with ultra high prices by the motoring public.the real revolution will come when we all start shopping for electric cars . then vote out all the sitting politicians.

[jasion]

Think of all the sexy black gold in Alaska,

[ACDII]

the oil boys must have found some way to own the ethanol industry or they would not be pushing it right now. ethanol will be heavily subsidized by tax payers all the way from the seed to the pump and then again with ultra high prices by the motoring public.the real revolution will come when we all start shopping for electric cars . then vote out all the sitting politicians.

Probably NOT far from the truth! It is far less costly to convert used vegetable oil into bio diesel than it takes to turn corn into ethanol! There was a plan to convert waste fat from chickens, pigs and cattle by tyson into bio D, but that fell through, gee wonder why. lesse, turn it into liquid, tritration, seperation, washing, walla bio diesel. Doesnt get any simpler than that!

[baravelli]

Conoco/Tyson is on last month with help of Federal grants. Only a matter of time before we breed fat chickens and humans.
My Crown Victoria's dyno days are over.

[steevil]

won't be any fat people with all the walking we'll be doing. won't be any fat chickens if all the corn goes to alcohol. hydrogen is a very skinny molecule and hard to deal with. it tends to get past seals and valves. the true answer is the plug in hybrid . all they have to do is change the marketing spin. americans will buy large quantities of hybrids when they see a performance advantage. faster 0-60 times will sell more "eco-freindly" cars.

[ACDII]

won't be any fat people with all the walking we'll be doing. won't be any fat chickens if all the corn goes to alcohol. hydrogen is a very skinny molecule and hard to deal with. it tends to get past seals and valves. the true answer is the plug in hybrid . all they have to do is change the marketing spin. americans will buy large quantities of hybrids when they see a performance advantage. faster 0-60 times will sell more "eco-freindly" cars.

Off the line the Prius is quicker than most cars, it's after it hits ~30 that it dogs down. Compared to some of the small cars I have owned in the past, it isnt any slower, but we have all been spoiled with high performance gas guzzlers. Cant have both, yet. Believe me, I will take the 50 MPG and not so fast car over a gas guzzling sports car for a daily driver, if I want to burn rubber and have fun I can fill up my truck and take it for a spin.


BTW Diesel actually went down over night! Gas station I drive by every day had regular @ 3.24 and diesel @ 2.99 yesterday, this morning regular was @ 3.34 and diesel was @ 2.96.

[iMPY]

this morning regular was @ 2.34 and diesel was @ 2.96.

TYPO!!?!?!?!?

[ACDII]

TYPO!!?!?!?!?

heheh yep :D Gas prices stabilized this week, has not changed at all since my last post.

[baravelli]

Is this my imagination? Are people driving 5-10 MPH slower? Seems I am the last in a seventeen car train with an SUV leading the pack driving 32 miles per hour.
3.46 ga. 87 octane

[ACDII]

Is this my imagination? Are people driving 5-10 MPH slower? Seems I am the last in a seventeen car train with an SUV leading the pack driving 32 miles per hour.
3.46 ga. 87 octane

hehe, no, you probably got behind someone who trained in a minivan :lol: I swear every time I am in a line of traffic going 5-10 under the speed limit, the lead vehicle is a minivan!

I normally do at least 5 over and get passed all the time by SUV's and gas guzzlers, and all I can think is, if you drive like that you have no right to complain about the cost of gas. One guy in a beat up old car passed me, I was doing a little over 60 on a 50 MPH road, this guy passed me doing at least 70, and man did his exhaust stink of unburned gas, and all I could think is I could drive 30 miles on what he just burned passing me.

[steevil]

i tried to fit my 6'7" 300 lb bulk into a geo metro and made it most of the way before realizing i would not be able to get back out. now i envy all those smaller people who can fit into little cars. just imagine a three banger turbo geo haulin gerbil ass down the road and getting 40 mpg . i can only dream.

[iMPY]

best you could do is one of those newer cavaliers... :barf2: ... ive got a 6 foot plus friend who only has minor complications boarding and exiting those.

[steevil]

what does his other foot drive? those little cars have to make two trips to get me anywhere. the Keebler elf engineers have got to get it into their heads that people are getting bigger not smaller. the cars arent to small per say, but just not adjustable enough for us clydesdales

[iMPY]

lol. he doesnt drive he just rides in it. its beneath either of us to drive a 4 banger.

[steevil]

poor guy must rather walk . should i send him a paper bag? with or without eye holes? i tried my brothers brand new subaru on for size and swept a knob off the dash with my knee.

[baravelli]

On the House side of the Capitol, once again rearing up it's ugly head, Federal traffic violation statutes. During Clean Air Act of 2007 legislation negotiations, three House offices and a gaggle of interest groups want speeding on a U.S. Highway and Interstate to be a Federal Crime. As we know, speed kills and the fastest roads were built by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Speed wastes gas and 'national security' is at risk.
Not to worry about genetic hybrid National Troopers roaming the roads in soon to be Chinese owned Chrysler R/Ts. Enforcement will probably be a funded mandate for the States. There are precedents. Transportation, Interior and Justice Departments have been doing that for decades. Next time you plead guilty to a speed violation on a federal highway, the $100 fine, plus court costs recording fees including federal, turns into $400.
This is a minority view. But no one in Congress reads all the Bills and with the current House leadership...who knows.
Sounds far-fetched? In my state, the legislature passed one essentially making driving without both hands on the wheel a secondary. Safety belts were a secondary until this year. With kindness, our Lawgivers have given we the sheeple July 2008 to learn to drive.

[steevil]

people with single agenda in mind do vote. single issue politicians get elected. and on the whole i'd say that the current leadership only acts in a knee jerk manner. stiffer fines just line the coffers for more wasteful spending. now cameras are going up at intersections for red light enforcement and the fines were increased to pay for them.

[JCG1]

Let me just mention something that is REALLY getting annoying.
I live in the wonderful tax-rich environment known as Chicago, Illinois.
Home of the current US record-high average gas price.

When I specced out this motor to run on 93, it was going for under $2.25 per
Got the motor finished and installed and broken in (MAY 1 yr ago) and it was $2.89
I just paid fucking $3.99 and it appears it's going to top $4 easy this weekend

Only bright side is I ditched the wife's 98 turbo volvo wagon that ALSO had to run on damn premium.

Whatever happened to that neutron bomb thingy? Wasn't that supposed to just kill the people and animals and leave the stuff unradiated? like . . . the oil
Screw trying to convince the Iraqi's to give us unconscionable contract rights
In for a penny . . .

[ACDII]

Let me just mention something that is REALLY getting annoying.
I live in the wonderful tax-rich environment known as Chicago, Illinois.
Home of the current US record-high average gas price.


Whatever happened to that neutron bomb thingy? Wasn't that supposed to just kill the people and animals and leave the stuff unradiated? like . . . the oil
Screw trying to convince the Iraqi's to give us unconscionable contract rights
In for a penny . . .

+1 Ditto! I have noticed that stations arent as full as usual in the morning. Will be interesting to see just when people will have enough of this. I have always been conservative with fuel, if I dont need to go somewhere, I stay put. I miss driving my F350, but not at $3 a gallon for diesel, and my Vic hasnt left the driveway in 6 weeks. When I first got the Prius, the first fill was $23, now for the same amount, $35. At that rate, I would hate to see what filling the Vic would be for the amount of driving I do.

Of course the biggest thing that gets me is even though gas is getting near $4 a gallon, people still drive stupid! Slow the fuck down, that light isnt going to change to green any faster because you floored it. Passing me while I'm doing 60+ is just wasting your gas, you arent getting there much faster than I am, see you at the next light(9 out of 10 times this actually happens). If people would check their driving habits, then you would be surprised how easy it is to use less gas. Rule one, dont crowd the car in front of you, back off, and read the road. If you see brake lights onthe cars ahead, back off, it uses less gas to slow down a bit and speed up a bit, than to come to almost s top and then accelerate back up to 60. This for me is nothing new, been driving my F350 like that for a long time, I just notice better economy with the Prius doing that due to the MFD showing the instant MPG.

[baravelli]

Don't know what y'all are bitchin' about. I bought Conoco-Phillips last year at $58. Today COP is $79. My retirement is lookin' good right now.

[baravelli]

ACDII. You must be talkin' about city driving. Highway econo-driving rules are different.
1. Go as far as you can as fast as you can. The two 'sweet spots' for my car are 40-42 and 64-66 MPH and enjoy a 440 mile range.
2. God made cruise control. Worship Him.
3. Crowd the car in front of you. Bonus points if it's a truck and trailer.
4. Don't watch the car in front of you. Watch the car in front of it.
5a. [Southwest corollary] Roll the windows up. Life is not a Hollywood movie.
5b. [Northwest corollary] Pass on the right. "Left Lane Passing Only" signs are posted for a reason and some of us do have a genetic disposition to act politically incorrect.

[baravelli]

I discovered something twenty years ago that has saved me thousands of dollars for fuel over the years. It's called an intake manifold vacuum gauge.
I installed one on the Crown Vic because the digital dash lies. It always says I am going faster and farther than I really am.

[steevil]

lot's of hills around here. it annoys me to see people using their brakes for stop signs at the top of an up hill run. maintenance of forward momentum and little use of the brakes is the skill that needs to be taught to most of these non driving knuckle draggers around here. you are right b. a vacum gauge will scare you off the gas pedal right away if you pay attention to it. they should start putting them in cars again like they did in the late 70's. remember the low fuel economy warning light from ford?