Chitty Chitty Bang BANG!

I promised earlier that I would write a piece in regard to the black magic of how to save on gasoline, and this is that bit.

I am currently a professional driver. But really that just is the latest description to basically a lifetime of playing with machines. I was inspired as a kid by the movie “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, and have been an inventor ever since. In order to become an inventor, one has to have a great detailed knowledge of how things work. (After all, one must pay homage to those who have invented before himself by studying and learning of their acts of brilliance. I take a moment to give you this background so that you may more easily understand the mechanism by which I have discovered the information I’m about to share with you.

To really understand how to make your driving as efficient as possible, one must first understand what is really happening behind the common acts we all perform on a daily basis, under the hood of the machines which we depend so completely on. So I will start with a basic explanation of what an internal combustion engine is, and how it works, and then later when I give you the reasons why things work the way that they do, you’ll have a more complete understanding beyond the knowledge of the information itself.

An engine is really just an air pump. It’s kind of a strange way of thinking, that the whole fuel aspect of it is pretty much secondary, but really, it is.

If you’ve any experience with air pumps of any size, this should help you gain a firmer understanding of what is going on with an engine. The main difference of course is that instead of using electricity to turn the pump, we put a flammable liquid INSIDE the pump and drive it from the inside, instead of from the outside.

Next, let’s look at any kind of flywheel type of system you’ve ever used, and see how that compares to what we are doing with an automotive drive train. Lets start with a relatively familiar observation that I’m sure most of us can relate to.

A bicycle.

Ever notice when you first start riding your bike that when you first start off, it takes WAY more effort to push the pedals than it does once you have actually started moving? This is because of the physics law where an object in motion tends to stay in motion. Once you get the bike rolling at a steady speed, the amount of energy required to push the bike is drastically reduced. Only a change in speed, or a change in road surface or additional wind resistance will cause you to have to push harder.


So lets go back to our air pump. Just like when you are peddling the bike, the engine itself will tend to stay in motion after it has reached a certain speed. So when we start off, we spend a much bigger amount of fuel to get it going, and once it’s going we can trickle off the fuel supply quite a bit without the machine changing it’s relative speed.

Now, while we are on the subject....what we have been using in our model here is a fast acceleration to a constant speed. But since we are here, let’s also notice something else. Ever notice when you are riding your bike that if you accelerate very slowly, just a little bit faster a little bit at a time, how much less the effort is? The same goes with our air pump.

A slow acceleration requires much less energy expenditure than a faster acceleration. This is because we are using the law of inertia to our advantage. The slower we accelerate, the less energy we use, because we are NOT fighting inertia as much as when we try to reach warp 9 in ten seconds.

Ok. Now that we have a basic familiarity with these principles, lets bring it back to our common experience behind the wheel.

I think that there is a basic misunderstanding of the level of technology that we are dealing with here. Another way of looking at an engine (other than an air pump) is a big campfire. When we are driving and we stab the throttle and “open it up”, what that means is, we are no longer metering out the fuel to the engine at all and are instead allowing the maximum amount of fuel to go through the system to make the fuel flow from the gas tank to the point where it is burned as fast as possible. The relative speed of this is based on how big the engine/air pump is, and how big the pipe is that runs from the tank to the engine/air pump. Using our campfire example, when we step on the throttle a little bit it’s like taking a dixie cup and tossing that much fuel on the fire. When we stab the throttle and “open it up” we are taking the biggest bucket we can carry full of fuel and throwing it on the campfire. I’m sure most of us can relate to what happens. We can throw dixie cups of fuel on the fire all night long and make it flare up just a little bit, or, we can throw a huge supply of fuel on the fire and it makes it flare up really big. But the amazing part of it is.....the length of time that the fuel flares up on the fire, lasts about the same amount of time whether we use a dixie cup, or a bucket. Right? That is because the rate at which the fuel actually burns is constant. It is controlled by the fuels octane. Thus fuel that has an octane rating of 87 burns FASTER, and fuel that has an octane rating of 92 burns SLOWER. We like SLOW burning fuel because the slower it burns, the longer the “flare up” we get when we throw it on the fire. Make sense?


Ok, I hope yall are still with me, it’s difficult to make this readily understandable and yet keep it somewhat brief.
I had mentioned that we are limited in how far we can control or manipulate the fire by our technology. This is an overly simplistic statement, but will have to do for now. The point is, because of the laws of physics, and the various technologies we have to try to get around them, we are currently kind of stuck with our fuel burning air pumps as the primary method by which we loco mote around.

So lets take a look at how we the driver of an automobile can make each tank of gas go the farthest.

First of all, don’t forget our bike model. Slow starts save fuel. Once we are going, SMALL changes in speed are ten TIMES as efficient as “dropping the hammer” to make a lane change or pass another car.

The truth of it is ........we are our own worst enemy when it comes to saving fuel. Who doesn’t enjoy feeling the power of giving your car the equivalent of the command, “ahead warp factor 9”? We are all creatures of the physical, and it brings us pleasure to feel a car squat down and rocket off whenever we tell it to. It affirms our sense of personal power and enhances the illusion that we have some degree of power over our environment, if not our lives. But that’s ALL it is. A quick momentary burst of your wallet as it goes from your wallet to the tank to the roaring campfire for a quick momentary flare-up. Then of course it goes into our air in the form of pollutants which we pay for again several dozen times as we attempt to clear it out of our water, food, etc. etc. You get the picture.

So if we could just learn to control our typical animal impulses, and not make the trip to the grocery store an amusement park ride, we’d be saving a lot of money, fuel, and impact to the environment right there.

Ok. Enough of the explanation and now I’ll get down to the brass tacks of tips to save on fuel.

Let’s start with wind resistance. If the universe was trying to tell mankind just how fast we ought to be traveling, the physics laws of wind resistance and drag ought to be a big clue to us. For those who are unaware, the breakpoint for the change in aerodynamics is about 45m.p.h. What does that mean? That means, that if you had the horsepower to move it, you could drive a building down the road at speeds up to about 45 before it would make any difference whatsoever as to what shape your vehicle was. Now this is a key factor here. Another way of stating this is that our engine is operating at it’s peak efficiency rate (the most movement for the least amount of fuel) at 45. This is why a while back they opted for the 55m.p.h speed limits. After 45 m.p.h., the efficiency of our machine goes down DRASTICALLY. Waste is increased substantially up to 60, and after 60, we are just THROWING fuel on the fire. But remember, this is only in reference to wind resistance, so the rules still apply at slower speeds regarding slow starts to overcome inertia efficiently.

So, if you can, drive 45, or less. The tradeoff obviously is time. They say time is money, and it is never so apparent as when you turn the key to your car.

Spend the time, drive slower, save money of fuel. Actually save a LOT more than just fuel, you’d also save on tires, drive train component wear and tear, and as an extra added bonus, you’ll have more reaction time to avoid that idiot driver trying to text on his phone while driving. You’d also lower the amount of pollution that your car emits into the atmosphere when you drive slower.

So, our next tip is that when you are on the road, stop using your brakes.
THINK about what you are doing instead of using your brakes to save errors in judgment. LOOK down the road and if you see a blockage about to occur, just let off the throttle. Give yourself enough time to allow the car to slow down on it’s own. Remember, each and every single time you step on the brakes, you are effectively erasing the forward momentum you just spent X amount of $ on to get going. Not only that, but have you ever wondered just how much of the air contaminants we have to breathe are the brake dust from all of our cars? The next time you go down the highway in bumper to bumper traffic, imagine that you could actually SEE the brake dust flying up into the air in front of you from the traffic in front of you. Yeah, that dust is going right into your A/C intake and right into your car. Not much, but then, how much brake dust is on the U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance as part of your healthy diet? See what I mean? It always cracks me up to see a car with uber liberal green bumper stickers all over it’s tail engaging in the STOMP throttle and then brake behavior.

MOST of it, is absolutely preventable. If people would stop all the other multitasking attempts they try to do while operating an automobile, and pay attention, we’d have smoother traffic flow and less pollution. Needlessly stomping on the accelerator, and then negating that with a stomp on the brakes is the WORST way to drive. For EVERYONE.

To recap:
Drive slower if you can.
When you drive, drive in “slow motion” .....like granny does. A little throttle here, a little brake there, but never brake if you can anticipate a slow down instead, just let go of the throttle EARLY.

Maintain your car. more air in the tires means that they roll with less effort.
Keep them properly inflated.
Change the air and fuel filters in your car. Change the oil. These things reduce friction and increase efficiency.

The single biggest way to save money on fuel is to plan ahead. Save all your trips for one outing, then allot enough TIME for you to “mosey along”.
If you need to open something wide up, make it your car stereo volume.

I hope this helps.

Chiron’