Craig Henderson and Bill Green designed and built the Avion, a custom car that breaks fuel efficiency records, back in 1984; Henderson drove the Avion over 1400 miles on 12.4 gallons during a trip that ended a couple days ago.
Attached below is a video from The Dori Monson Show, KIRO RADIO, that gives an idea of what the Avion looks like -- it's only 42 inches high, it's streamlined to the extreme, it's built more like an airplane than a car, and the driver sits about 6 inches off the ground.
While the Avion is not available for home use, it gives people an picture of what is possible with streamlined engineering and lightweight materials.
Henderson used Fuel Max tires from local tire giant Goodyear which undoubtedly helped achieve the spectacular mileage -- see this recent article: Henderson's Avion gets 119.1 MPG.
Goodyear reports that the Fuel Max brand tires that Henderson used are available for 80% of the cars on the road today and they can increase fuel efficiency by 4%, reducing fuel requiremens by 2,600 miles per set of tires. They're available at Goodyear tire stores throughout the Cleveland area.
In addition to the attached video, we have a few more pictures of Henderson and the Avion from the recent press release on PRNewsWire.
Copyright © 2010 Susan J. Walker; click “subscribe” above if you’d like an email whenever Susan Walker publishes.
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