| OCR Text |
Show Check if out . . . 55 Better Than 70 "But officer, I get better gas mileage at 70 than at 55." So goes the lament of many disgruntled Utah motorists who object to the 55 mph speed limit. The Utah Energy Office Of-fice gave a few of these motorists a chance to prove their assertions with a gas mileage test Wednesday, July 27 on the highway near Lakepoint Junction in Tooele County. Two cars from the news media were also tested. The gas . mileage tester consisted of a glass cylinder containing con-taining one-tenth of a gallon of gasoline which was connected to the test vehicle's fuel line by Rees Fullmer, a graduate student with the University of Utah's mechanical engineering department. depar-tment. Mr. Fullmer used a stopwatch to time how fast the cylinder emptied em-ptied at speeds of 55 and 70. From this, mileage rates at both speeds could be calculated. A 1974 Oldsmobile made 16.3 miles per gallon at 55 and 14.7 at 70 an improvement of about 11 percent at the lower speed. A 1977 Ford LTD got 17.2 mpg at 55 mph and 14.3 at 70, an improvement im-provement of about 20 percent at 55. Going against the wind, the LTD got 16.6 mpg at 55 and 13.2 at 70, a 26 percent per-cent improvement at 5. A 1972 Chevrolet Caprice's gas mileage was about 21 percent better at 55. It made 14.1 mpg at 55 and 11 mpg at 70. The Caprice got 12.3 at 55 and 8.74 mpg at 70 when going against the wind, an improvement of 41 percent per-cent at 55. When a car's speed increases, air resistance goes up significantly. Wind increases air resistance exponentially. exponen-tially. The faster a car is moving the more power it takes to break air and wind resistance and the more gasoline it takes to power the car. That's why most cars are 10 to 20 percent more fuel efficient at 55 mph than at 70. "We wanted to demonstrate the potential poten-tial gas savings at 55 and establish the credibility of Governor Matheson's 55-mile-per-hour enforcement program," said Jack Lyman, of the Energy office. Any driver who would like his car tested may call the Energy Office at 533-5424. 533-5424. The test will cost $25. Anyone whose car gets better gas mileage at 70 than at 55 will receive a free test. For more information, infor-mation, call the Utah Energy Hot Line at 581-5424 or 1-800-662-3633, toll free. |
