Stay tuned, an interesting article that PROVES my theory on power-to-weight ratios are REALLY where a car's fuel economy is decided, long before you turn the key!!
So here it is: due to a mechanical repair that I didn't have time to invest in, I had to rent a car to go to Montreal to get my son. To keep costs low with a rental, i rented the second-lowest class of car available: a Pontiac G5; basic 4-door; 4-cylinder; bare-bones vehicle. I as lucky to have Cruise Control, (as I later found out).
So here I am, cruise at 120/kph towards Montreal, the usual round-trip comes out to about 6 hours on a good day. This vehicle has a fuel-tank of about 65 liters, about two less than my 2002 BMW M540i; running with a 2.2 liter 4-cylinder. The logic and the common social belief is that the smaller the engine, the better the fuel economy. Well not really.
Ottawa-Montreal-Ottawa consumed one FULL tank with the G5. With my BMW's 4.4 liter V8: 1/2 tank. Why is that, then? Heavier car; bigger engine! Physics. Power-to-weight ratio. In simpler terms, each cylinder had less weight to move per-cylinder unlike the 4-cylinder. And this is with the same number of gears in both transmissions.
Just goes to prove, just because it`s common belief or `popular belief`, that doesn`t make it so, nor right. As an example, building a Prius does more harm to the environment BEFORE it is even on the road than if I spent a year driving my BMW, (which I don`t, I only use it 5 months out of the year and then it goes into winter-storage).
So, again as I`ve said so many times, don`t be a sheep, don`t follow the crowd, rad up on topics of interest, learn the truth, don`t believe everything without learning more about it.
And to those detractors who still want to bash V8s; why don`t you go for a ride on your diesel-chugging GreenPeace Rainbow Warriors and protest against the disinformation Toyota and other `sayers-of-nay` have spread and turned fiction to fact. Look beyond the social-programming! Make up your own mind with facts, not belief, not fiction.
