Test Engineer On Petrol Economy

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 71, 30 March 1949, Page 5

Test Engineer On Petrol Economy

“Fifty per cent of motorists throw away nearly half the fuel they pour in their gas tanks,” said Austin Elmore, test engineer, who averaged 33.3 miles per gallon on an economy run from Los Angeles to San Francisco in' his stock eight-cylinder car. . “When you want to make a quick getaway,” Elmore explains to those who complain of poor mileage, “you press the throttle clear down to the floor, giving the engine more gasoline than it - needs for maximum power. But the engine develops just as much power and runs nearly twice as long at half throttle. “Another thing, you drive the car as fast as. it can be driven in the low gears, while I shift into second at 10 miles an hour, and into high at 25 miles an hour. That allows me to save 50 per cubic centimetres of gasoline on one start. Also, you try to beat the normal flow of traffic. Speeding faster than the regular traffic flow necessitates an excessive use of the brakes and you throw away most of the gasoline that was used to get the car up to the speed. “Last of all, don’t race the motor while standing, or try to make highspeed get-aways.”