For the longest time, I could not figure out why this curious route was taken by the "Green Human" team: Portland MA - to Florida Florida - to Portland WA The direct route would have been from Maine to Washington. But instead, they went South and then took a diagonal, against the prevailing winter winds. It was the drive to Florida that screwed up the "sandbag." Driving South, even in winter, gave them side and tail winds, lower aerodynamic drag. Worse, it put the 1.5L Prius in low-drag wind conditions. Also, the route South, especially using I-95, put them through frequent, low-speed, 'road construction' and 'traffic jams.' They literally threw the Prius, Bre' Rabbit, into the briar patch, which they could never overcome. I have no idea why "Green Human" didn't take the Northern route. That would have sent them across Montana and against winter prevailing winds. In the worst case, they could have taken a couple of days off to wait for an ideal winter headwind and driven at very high speeds (Montana is relaxed about such things.) "Green Human" taking the Souther jog added at least a week to the drive and by that mistake, ensured failure to achieve a significant difference. But now the barn door is closed. The 2010 Prius (ZVW30) has a 1.8L engine and out performs the Jetta TDI, in fact all TDIs, at all speeds. The door has closed and there is no possibility of seeing a repeat of this badly staged stunt ... unless some Prius folks want to do a Prius vs TDI stunt, Portland WA to Portland MA via Hybridfest. <GRINS> Bob Wilson
The stunt was so blatantly bias, it gave me lots to blog about for months... They rushed that "challenge" knowing that delay would mean having to use a 2010 Prius instead of a 2009. They chose highway driving knowing that the diesel doesn't do anywhere near as well for city driving and Prius does even better. They extended the poll when results were heavily in the favor of Prius. They delayed publishing the MPG info for weeks, despite promising to deliver right away. Then there was a mysterious numeric "correction" immediately afterward. It was really bad, without even having to mention the comments on the videos. .
They should have driven from LA to Florida. That is what "we*" did when we wanted our new aerodynamic Class 8 tractor to get the best mileage. We* averaged 10.5 mpg with a 70,000 lb payload. * I used to work for a heavy duty truck manufacturer (starts with the letter "P" and used to be headquartered in Newark, CA)
5 to 6 was typical at that time (1990). I think it was improved by electronic engine control which started to become practical/popular in the late 80's. The tractor that got 10.5 mpg had as many aerodynamic tweaks as possible, including underframe panels (ala Prius underbody panels) and a special fairing and trailer setup that eliminated the trailer gap. A couple of my coworkers received a patent for the idea. I actually did the detail design on the fairing (the tractor mounted part), it was the first 3D CAD drawing that I ever did.
I'm not working right now, but I have used several different CAD programs. The drawing in the patent page is IBM Cadam, which I don't believe anyone uses anymore. The last place I worked used VectorWorks, because its very cheap to buy (~$500 for a single license). I have some experience with AutoCad and I took a class last year to learn SolidWorks. SolidWorks is a very cool program.
Who were they? Were they the same group that showed how green Jetta TDI by smoking tires? That was a great laugh.
