If you think that what BAT did was some kind of *trickery*,
let me explain to you how some mileage records have been
set in the past. With the accelerator pumps removed from the carburetors to avoid squirting fuel into the engine, test drivers
would accelerate, full throttle to 35 mph, push in the clutch,
switch off the ignition, and coast down to 5 mph, at which time
they would turn on the ignition, pop the clutch, accelerate to
35 mph and repeat the process. All this is easy on gas, but
it is hell on the drive train! Other test drivers would place
an egg between their foot and the gas pedal to remind them
to tread gently on the go pedal. And of course economy run
drivers would always coast down any hill they could in neutral.
I didn't see any eggshells on the floor or anybody popping the clutch either. The lap times were very consistent. On an oval course there
is no way to use gravity to an advantage more than once. I thought that the test was very well run, and I never expected them to run the tires at normal inflation pressures. I expected 50 psi, and that is what was verified. Any tester would do that. Now if they wanted to duct
tape all of the gaps between body panels to decrease drag, they
could have done that, but I think that would have been very
noticeable. Another thing that should be noted was the fact that
three different drivers got mileages that were only 3.3 % apart.
And two runs were only 0.5% apart, proving that the car was
doing all that it could do under varying conditions of temperature,
wind, and humidity. |
