THIS CAR TRAVELS 75 MILES ON A SINGLE GALLON OF GASOLINE!

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"This thing's got just too much horsepower," someone said. "Maybe a VW with a stock transmission needs 60 hp to get around ... but with the hydraulic drive train we've designed, I think a Volkswagen can get by with one heck of a lot less muscle."

Everyone agreed and the team of experimenters quickly rounded up a tow vehicle and began running a series of "drawbar tests" to determine the least amount of engine they needed to adequately power their 1,800-pound car. Result: The students concluded that a 16-hp Tecumseh overhead valve powerplant would do the job ... provided that their VW chassis was enclosed in a very aerodynamically clean envelope. (Say, something like the Bradley GT body that somebody just happened to want to donate to the project! )

HVTC CAR NUMBER TWO WORKS!

Just as Ernie Parker's engineering team was finishing its Second- generation "fluid powered" carriage, the opportunity arose to enter the machine in a Minnesota Society of Automotive Engineers economy run.

The test course was a 100-mile "average" trip (one-third city, one-third suburban, and one-third country driving) and the HVTC vehicle had less than one mile on it when the rally began. As far as this particular car was concerned, then, the run was far less a competition than a shakedown cruise to flush out the bugs which always hide in every new engineering concept.

Sure enough, the HVTC automobile had its share of gremlins ... one of which was so serious that the car rolled up "only" a "disappointing" 50 mpg. As instructor Parker explains it:

"A valve we had changed the evening before vibrated closed, thus starving the vehicle's hydraulic pump of oil. If we'd mounted the valve's lever just 90 degrees to the left or to the right, this wouldn't have happened. The mistake really murdered us in the competition, though, because-with that valve closed-our car's engine had to pump twice as much oil as necessary to push the machine down the road."

Were the HVTC students licked by this less-than-ideal first public showing of their hydraulically driven automobile? Of course not! They just pitched in, exorcised the imps and goblins from the car, and put the machine back on the road. Further tests soon showed that the vehicle's combination of [1] aerodynamic body, [2] 16-hp engine, and [31 "infinite gear ratio" hydraulic drive and energy storage system is a real winner.

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