Joerg said:
John Popelish wrote:
Not necessarily so. Some cars adjust the ignition timing, mixture and
other things to keep the process efficient but just shy of
knocking/pinging. That can yield a few percent on higher octane fuels.
But probably not more than the cost difference.
The internal combustion I am looking forward to operating is
a variable displacement, variable compression ratio design
that has no carburetors or throttle body, but just intake
ports with fuel injectors. It adjusts its displacement and
stroke to compress the fuel air mixture to just below that
which causes pre-ignition while producing only the horse
power required, from idle to full, high speed acceleration.
It can also adjust to run on any vaporizable fuel of any
octane rating, from hydrogen to ethanol to 98 octane jet
fuel, obtaining the maximum practical mechanical energy from it.
Experimental (and impractically heavy) hydraulically
adjusted versions are being tested in dynamometer, and the
test results, so far, indicate that a typical vehicle with a
given peak horsepower capability would use about half the
fuel, on average, compared to a fixed displacement and
compression ratio engine in use, today.
How would you like to have a vehicle that goes something
like 50 miles on a gallon of low grade gasoline with 200 HP
available, or 55 on premium with 220 HP available?