Try a Hydraulic Drive Train: This Car of the Future Gets 75 MPG

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The street-ready automobile gets up to 75 miles on a single gallon of gasoline!
The street-ready automobile gets up to 75 miles on a single gallon of gasoline!
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The guts of the hydraulic drive train and energy storage system put together by Ernie Parker's class is the car of the future.
The guts of the hydraulic drive train and energy storage system put together by Ernie Parker's class is the car of the future.
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Instructor Ernie Parker whizzes on down the road in his advanced engineering class's 75-mpg automobile without its aerodynamic body.
Instructor Ernie Parker whizzes on down the road in his advanced engineering class's 75-mpg automobile without its aerodynamic body.
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Ernie Parker adjusts the 16-hp engine to get optimal performance.
Ernie Parker adjusts the 16-hp engine to get optimal performance.
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This diagram shows the basic layout of the HVTC drive system.
This diagram shows the basic layout of the HVTC drive system.

It seems that Portland, Oregon’s Vincent Carman isn’t alone. At least one other group of inspired experimenters has found a way to use car hydraulics to vastly increase an automobile’s gas mileage.

Bright Idea: A Hydraulic Drive Train

That group is a class of advanced students at Minneapolis, Minnesota’s Hennepin Vocational Technical Center. And under the guidance of instructor Ernie Parker (and without ever having heard of Vince or his inertial storage transmission), the class recently designed and built what they call a “hydraulic storage transmission.”

Does it work? It sure does! As the students have already demonstrated when their special drive train is coupled to a 16-hp Tecumseh engine, installed in a Volkswagen chassis and covered with a Bradley GT body, the resulting one-of-a-kind automobile will travel (at speeds up to 70 mph) an incredible 75 miles on a single gallon of gas.

That’s impressive, especially when you remember that the HVTC fuel-stretcher was entirely constructed from off-the-shelf components that are readily available to any home mechanic in any part of the country. The sleek little automobile contains absolutely no exotic technology or hardware at all.

  • Published on Mar 1, 1978
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