this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024
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Cars - For Car Enthusiasts
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The car weighs very little and is very aerodynamic. Diesel fuel has higher energy density than gasoline that came in these cars. And these little diesels are pretty efficient especially when forced induction is added, but they’re still relatively dirty and I don’t know what kind of emissions controls the builder added (likely none, from the sound description).
The late 90s was short of a peak of light weight and aerodynamics. Often at the cost of safety to some extent. The insight was one of the lightest and slipperiest. But it had a heavy battery pack (now removed) that was used as a power booster for the ICE. EPA was 53mpg which was good for the time.
This guy basically built a DIY VW XL1. Except he did it with ~~30%~~ 100cc less displacement and no restrictions on emissions.
The XL1 got 240mpg for reference, 73 should be way to get and he could probably do way better with a tank of engineers and things like start/stop that the VW team had.
Edit: I was thinking the VW was a 1 liter but it’s 800cc.