Come on kids, you guys can beat these guys!

http://www.topgear.com/us/features/more/we-build-a-70-mpg-car/ We Build a 70 mpg Car By Dave Coleman|Photography by Christopher Gifford Feb 20 `09|217 Comments The new Honda Insight hybrid is expected to get 43 mpg on the highway. A Toyota Prius or Volkswagen Jetta TDI will get you roughly the same. Look beyond that one number, though, and the three cars share a common thread: They all have spectacularly low lifetime CO2 output, because each and every one will bore you to death before you get a chance to refill the tank. Each of these greenies will do 0-60 in about a week, they're all styled like lumps of cold mashed potatoes and every last one handles like a couch. If this is what it takes to save the world, maybe the world isn't worth saving. No, if we're going to stop the terrorists, rebuild the polar bears' igloos and somehow turn on the global air conditioner, we're going to need much more impressive mileage and, more important, something that's actually worth driving. You can't honestly expect us to give up driving fun just for a silly little planet, can you? So if 45 mpg doesn't change the equation, how about 70? Suck on that for a second. Forty-five is probably a lot better than whatever you're driving, but it's still within the realm of the imaginable. But 70? It's absurd. Perfect, then. On top of unlikely mileage, we need it from something with a little soul. We don't need supercar performance, but we should at least be able to outrun a minivan. Naught to 60 in 7 seconds is about as slow as we can stand before our minds wander. Come to think of it, breaking the 7-second barrier will also roast a Ferrari 308, which will help keep that Magnum P.I. fantasy alive. And then there's the price. If trees and puppies and little green frogs make your heart go pitter-patter, the Insight's $20,000 price tag is downright reasonable. Lovers of the other kind of green will always do the math, though, and inevitably determine that it will take 18 years of fuel savings to pay off their investment, so they might as well keep driving that Hummer. Price, then, is key if we really want to save the world. For absolutely no other reason than the fact that a good theme seems to be developing entirely on its own, $7,000 seems like the kind of irresistibly low price that would make even Arnold give up his monster truck. So there it is, the top 10 cars that get 70 mpg, do 0-60 in less than 7 seconds and cost $7,000 (and have sexy Italian styling): 1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: 7: 8: 9: 10: No? Well, then, it's official. TopGear.com America has a new project. We've got the ground rules (7,7,7 plus sexy Italian styling), now all we need is a plan. First thing to think about is where we want that gas mileage. Most hybrid cars get their great gas mileage sitting in traffic, while diesel-engine cars do their best hypermiling on the open road. Never mind the fact that a typical hybrid battery costs more than our entire project budget, we have no interest driving in traffic. Diesel it is. Now, sexy Italian styling that we can get for cheap and stuff full of diesely goodness...Let's see, DeTomaso Pantera? Too flashy. Alfa Romeo Spyder? Drop-tops aren't aerodynamic enough. Volkswagen Scirocco? Don't let that German name fool you. The Volkswagen Scirocco didn't become an international icon of modestly priced sex appeal based on its cold, calculated engineering efficiency. No, sir. It was the mighty Italian straight-edge of hired pen Giorgetto Giugiaro that empowered the Scirocco with its babe-magnet charm. Being little more than a half-squashed Rabbit, the Scirocco will also swallow a Rabbit's diesel engine like it was designed to be there. 70-mpg-car-bumper But wait. While converting a gas-powered car to diesel power is technically simple (replace the engine and the gas tank), it's bureaucratically cumbersome. Our creation will need a license plate, and that license plate requires a registration, and renewing that registration will require some kind of emissions test (unless you're fortunate enough to live in one of those hillbilly backwaters where they haven't figured out why the air is yellow). That test will require some state-sponsored bio-robot to perform an inspection where he checks off boxes indicating the greasy bits under the hood look basically like they did in 1975, and that the stink coming out the tailpipe still smells right. If the book doesn't say the Scirocco's pipe gas should smell like a diesel, we're dead in the water. 70-mpg-car-gas-station That narrows us down to one last choice, one last diesel-friendly product of Giugiaro's origami period: the Scirocco's upright, responsible older sister, the Rabbit Diesel herself. Aerodynamically, it's no Pantera, but we can get one cheap, we can put a plate on it and maybe, just maybe, we can glue on enough aerodynamic wizardry to make her slide through the air. So just like that, we have a plan. Step 1: We'll buy a 1981 Volkswagen Rabbit Diesel right here in New York City. Step 2: We'll drive it across thousands of miles of frozen tundra to Regina, Saskatchewan, where CWS Tuning will skillfully replace the clattery old oil burner with a modern, computer-controlled, turbocharged VW TDI engine. Step 3: We'll head south to sunny Southern California to thaw our bones and have UCLA aerodynamics professor John McNulty show us how to make a brick slippery. Just because the sexy Italian thing was handled so easily, don't expect the three 7's to be dispatched without a fight. Hitting 70 mpg will take more than a diesel engine and some aero tricks. We'll have to get clever with gearing, we'll have to learn about low rolling-resistance tires, and we'll have to use special low-friction oils. Every trick will have to come out from up our sleeves. 70-mpg-car-in-shop But before we begin, there's one crucial thing every project car must have: a name. This is where you come in. We've been calling this project the Sipster simply because it's all our synapses can do to get past the words "sexy Italian styling." Please come up with something better than the Sipster, Mileage Maven, Pump Dumper, Mangy Miser or Wabbit Warrior, and when you do, leave them in the comments below. We'll throw the best up in a poll on Monday and you'll all decide. The winner gets a swag pack with Top Gear merchandise.

I'll do it. Anybody got an X19 or Brazillian they wanna donate?

Wally needs a Brazilian.

I think I'm already on my way!

i think the same can be achieved for under challenge budget, and be cooler. id go scirocco and register it in bell county tx, a non emmisions testing county in tx. but then again im sure any car that a diesel can be transplanted in would work.

I'm wondering if X1/9 with civic VX transplant would hit the mark. Maybe with the right gearing?

And I'll beat you all with a Swift/Metro for under a grand.

Fiero with the TDI

Tim Baxter wrote: I'm wondering if X1/9 with civic VX transplant would hit the mark. Maybe with the right gearing?

Skinny tires, aero undertray, further weight reduction--it might kiss low 60's. I'm guessing an EG is more aerodynamic than the X1/9, though.

The gearing on the VX is already insanely tall. Sonic and I used to joke about my CX that 3rd through 5th were essentially the same ratio.

WTF would you use for a transmission???

I've clicked by this subject on other forums and I don't know why. I'm glad that Coleman is at it again with an interesting project.

Opel GT with a garden tractor diesel.

You know this is Dave Colemen and the guys from Sport Compact Car.

I think it's absolutely bad ass! Wish I had the cash to try and beat them myself. I particularly love the part were they talk about the lack of air bags and modern day safety stuff and their answer is to put a good suspension on it to avoid a crash

suprf1y wrote: And I'll beat you all with a Swift/Metro for under a grand.

Easily. Cut weight down to 1400. underbody tray, tape some stuff up, xfi stuff. easy.

Aero is key.

I'm working on a MPG project for somebody right now that is Metro based. 3 cyl., 15-1 compression, multiport EFI, some creative cylinder head, and camshaft work, super tall gear, and serious aero. There are some really interesting alternative fuels involved, and the goal is 100 MPG. You'll probably read about it soon.

Cut weight down to 1400. underbody tray, tape some stuff up, xfi stuff. easy.

I don't think you can get a Metro that light. An 85-88 car, maybe (I think mine is just under 1500), but not a newer one.

I have customers claiming 70mpg now. Not sure how accurate their results are, but under light duty, I can believe it.

Ok, I read this article and completely missed the by-line. Coleman and Top Gear can it get better? Well, yeah. But... Ok, Coleman and GRM is all I got.

I cant see it being that hard with that combo that they used. Old VW= light. TDI (with a tune)= efficient from the get go, but with a tune its gotta be great. Skiny tires, a good gearset. I dont see it being that hard.

Almost 50 mpg is the norm for my brothers SOHC 1.9 Saturn. This is with a constant check engine light, over 100K miles and a light foot.

Cool though

Funny thing is engine swaps, even to diesel, are legal even where they are, so long as the engine is the same age or newer than teh car they are going into, and are of the same basic use class (i.e. no truck engines in cars). So they could have legally built a diesel Scirocco where they are.

They realized that after the fact, that rabbit turned out to really suck since the previous owner would run dirty french fry oil. That was a wicked series of articles, have him or holstien been up to anything else lately?

poopshovel wrote: I'll do it. Anybody got an X19 or Brazillian they wanna donate?

How many zero's are there in a Brazillion, anyway?

http://metroxfi.com/category/convertible-xfi-project/

-OR-

http://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?s=4446d0d1583e97e509d88ec423efc803&t=4203&page=1

Um, already been done, a MetroXFI Convertible with a properly tuned MegaSquirt for fuel economy is running close to 63 MPG AVERAGE on Gasoline with a best trip pushing 118 MPG and the best tank 71 MPG, so I don't see why 70 MPG out of a Diesel will be hard unless they're tuning the stock computer, seriously if they Squirt the thing they'd prolly get alot more out of it...

BUT will that XFi ragbox go 0-60 in 7 seconds or less?

THAT is the second priority.

I am thinking a first gen Honda Insight body stripped, dipped and ripped with a worked and pro-pain'd 2.0L TDi engine.

John Brown wrote: BUT will that XFi ragbox go 0-60 in 7 seconds or less? THAT is the second priority. I am thinking a first gen Honda Insight body stripped, dipped and ripped with a worked and pro-pain'd 2.0L TDi engine.

Hell no it can't accelerate for $h1t, but I agree, starting with a very aerodynamic platform and adding a TDI would be my choice as well, specially a 5speed, and then also megasquirt it using all the tricks the dude w/the XFI did to his to attain the highest possible use of fuel like injector cutout/restart, 15-18AFRs, etc...

The problem here is that it wouldn't smog in Cali since no Insight ever had a Diesel, hence why they picked a rabbit...

Looking at my 1G. Makes me think about a 1.8 litre and megaSquirt.

John Brown wrote: BUT will that XFi ragbox go 0-60 in 7 seconds or less?

With a turbo it will.