Ex Bonneville Opel???? 376 mpg???

[Rionart]

Came across this on evilbay....does anyone know the story behind it??
eBay Motors: 1953 OPEL BONNEVILLE SALT FLAT RACE CAR (1 OF A KIND)!! (item 220100832417 end time Apr-15-07 20:20:34 PDT)

[timemachine]

One of a kind indeed - chopped to boot. The work of Chip Foose's grandfather? This would be cool car to own. Rob, are you thinking of buying it?

[Rionart]

Originally Posted by timemachine One of a kind indeed - chopped to boot. The work of Chip Foose's grandfather? This would be cool car to own. Rob, are you thinking of buying it?

Jim,
I have enough projects to last me a couple of lifetimes already....
I'm intrigued if this 'racer' ever saw much action...the rear wheel set-up is pretty unique...
If someone was to buy this I'd hope they would return it to it's 'glory days' look.
C'mon Bob, you know you want this one....you only have enough projects for a lifetime and a half so far....

[ungermm]

Did you know? Ebay listing for a 376 mpg Opel. Oh, and, Opel is a four letter word.

4af5_3.JPG

eBay Motors: Other Makes : This is NO JOKE ... (item 150112656708 end time Apr-24-07 18:37:30 PDT)

Shell Opel

[baronbors]

Not in too bad a shape- but still looks like it had a hard life

[RallyBob]

As I recall from when I was a teenager, the Guinness Book of World Records DID in fact list a 1959 Opel as the world record holder for fuel economy for MANY yeaars. It had something like 150 psi in the tires! If this is in fact the same car, then it is of historical significance....

Bob

[sugg578]

i do not see a gas petal sorry if i spelled petal wrong well nm

[RallyBob]

Boy, you gotta wonder looking under the 'hood' of this thing...how much asbestos do you think is wrapped around the engine in the search for higher thermal efficiency? Damn thing is giving me cancer just looking at it....

Bob

[baz]

Originally Posted by sugg578 i do not see a gas petal sorry if i spelled petal wrong well nm

theres a hand throttle on the carb in the pictures so the driver can not rev the engine , it just has 1 fixed speed in each gear

scroll down to find it

http://www.race-cardrivers.com/Shell%20Opel.htm

[George]

why would the rear wheels be moved to the center of the car?To save weight?

[opelnut10]

Originally Posted by baz theres a hand throttle on the carb in the pictures so the driver can not rev the engine , it just has 1 fixed speed in each gear scroll down to find it Shell Opel

What I would like to see is the hill they ran this thing down at idle to get that kinda gas mileage and what kinda brakes they using to keep it from getting airborne coasting down that hill

[RallyBob]

Originally Posted by George why would the rear wheels be moved to the center of the car?To save weight?

I'm guessing that in order to reduce driveline friction they eliminated the stock transmission and hypoid rear axle, going with a simple system of pillow block bearings and chains/gears. At that level everything counts!

[biglefti]

Originally Posted by George why would the rear wheels be moved to the center of the car?To save weight?

They will probably still weigh the same in the middle

[timemachine]

Originally Posted by biglefti They will probably still weigh the same in the middle

Wheels maybe, but no axles, rear end, drive shaft, gearbox. Find a stable horizontal dimension and lose more weight. you know there's no suspension in this thing either.

This is the same car nobody bit on a couple of weeks ago for what, $2K. Now that they know what it is, it's $5K. It would be a great rolling ad for the ileage movement.

[Yoda]

Anyone seen this on eBay yet? Bizarre!
eBay Motors: Other Makes : This is NO JOKE ... (item 150112656708 end time Apr-24-07 18:37:30 PDT)


If it gets delisted, here is another site about the car.
Shell Opel

Searched this site and didn't see any prior mentions. Google doesn't have much.

[oldopelguy]

you can find the discussion of this car allready started here:
http://www.opelgt.com/forums/opel-en...g-no-joke.html

[Yoda]

Just realized I used the wrong search. Sorry for the dup.

[Geek]

The whole thermal efficiency thing got me to wondering. All car engines lose most of the energy created as heat - how much of that energy can be re-captured? Using water injection, you can cool the intake charge, but it also will make use of the heat in the combustion chamber, turning into steam. Because the volume of steam is so much greater than that of water, it will add to the force being applied to the piston. Is there any way to be able to use enough water (as fuel) to both drive then engine and cool it at the same time? I'm not talking about eliminating gas (or diesel) from the equation, just trying to make use of the heat produced by combustion. Thoughts?

[namba209]

ADI or Anti-Detonant Injection has been used on military engines for years, includiiing jet engines, it is a mixture of water and alcohol. The reasoning is to make a more dense mixture in the combustion chamber, which results in more power. The mixture has to be correct though because one cubic inch of water will generate 1760 cubic inches of steam, IIRC, which has the possibility of bending rods. On reciprocating engines, the Flight Engineer would monitor the cylinder head temp gages during the injecting process an adjust the fuel mixture accordingly, to prevent detonation which could damage the engine. HTH.

[GTJIM]

That same Opel was listed as a "Boneville" record breaking car a week or so ago ....

[Rionart]

Originally Posted by GTJIM That same Opel was listed as a "Boneville" record breaking car a week or so ago ....

This thread:
http://www.opelgt.com/forums/general...ille-opel.html

[ungermm]

Ooops, I just got back from being away and when I originally posted this my search didn't show anything about it. Maybe because my search was for a 1959 Opel. I see it has aged 6 years in that week or so and has gone from a race car to a mpg phenom. It's also being sold with a different seller ID. I would suppose the seller has learned a few things about the car since the original offering.

The 376 mpg claim? I don't know if it's possible, especially from that car on flat ground without wind assist or any other assistance, but, there is a lot of interesting stuff said in the links about conspiracies to suppress technologies that would benefit us. However, be it myth or truth, it's still got an intriguing history and some kind of value. Jerry

[wannaopel]

Check out this 1959 Opel that gets 376 miles per gallon. Here is the link.
1959, OPEL, OPEL

[jvandyke]

There was a thread last winter on this car. Was listed twice on ebay as I recall. Pretty interesting.

[Phoenix]

The 59 Shell Oil Car that we talked about a while back is going on auction Jan 4-6 at the 35th Annual Collector Car Auction in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

Here's the link to the Collector Car Trader article which isn't really an ad to sell the car but an ad for the auction.

I couldn't find the thread but if anyone else can, post a link.