Needlenose

Mythbusters use golfball effect to boost fuel efficiency

Every time Congress considers boosting vehicle fuel efficiency via CAFE standards, the auto industry lobbyists descend on the Capitol to bleat about how higher mileage targets will bankrupt the industry.

I was watching a recent episode of Mythbusters where they ‘dimpled’ a car to see if the dimples would improve the laminar flow and reduce drag like they do on a golfball.

In spite of adding 800 lbs to the weight of the pictured sedan (car was coated in clay rather than denting the metal to get dimples), they were able to increase cruising fuel efficiency 11% !!  Could you imagine what the auto industry could achieve by throwing some skilled engineers and designers on this?   Hell, if they’d just produce cars with an actual streamlined design (rather than what people think is streamlined), they’d greatly increase fuel efficiency.

My gut reaction to the thought of bailing out those U.S. car companies who have been pushing massive, dangerous polluting gas guzzlers on us for obscene profits and who have been shamelessley lobbying Congress to oppose CAFE standards over the last decade is – fuck them!

But on reflection, here is the perfect opportunity to get what we want, while they are in distress.  Sure, let’s bail them out, but only if:

The government gets a significant piece of each company (for some period);

The companies are unable to lobby Congress during the bailout period;

A significant chunk of the cash is put into R&D for low emission/no emission vehicles;

The company agrees to produce vehicles with 35+ MPG by 2010, 45 MGP by 2012 and 55 MPG by 2014

Otherwise, fuck ‘em, let ‘em fail.