AbusiveWombat

I thought this was interesting. The muscle per gallon index. It basically gives credit to those cars that deliver horsepower and fuel economy. The formula is:

X = peak horsepower * city EPA / 100

1st place goes to: Toyota Highlander Hybrid
2nd place goes to: C6 Z06

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/auto/...uscle.table.htm

ninethreeeleven

Seeing that the third place car gets and estimated 13 miles per gallon, I hope this doesn't catch on.

I would also like to point out that any and all of the cars (except maybe the crazy hybrids) won't be getting EPA fuel economy at their estimated horsepower.
13mpg at 6600 RPM? I don't think so.

So while interesting, this index is completely useless, except for those who live their lives a "quarter mile at a time"

QUIKAG

Great...S2000 is 48.0, look at the esteemed company in which we share our vehicle of choice. haha.


129. Chrysler SEBRING TOURING Sedan 4D
$21,100 $20k-$30k 24 6 200 48.00
129. Volkswagen JETTA 2.0T Sedan 4D
$24,205 $20k-$30k 24 4 200 48.00
130. Audi A3 2.0T Wagon 4D
$25,460 $20k-$30k 24 4 200 48.00
131. Chrysler SEBRING GTC Convertible 2D
$27,915 $20k-$30k 24 6 200 48.00
132. Honda S2000 Convertible 2D
$33,700 $30k-$40k 20 4 240 48.00
133. GMC Trucks ENVOY DENALI 2WD Sport Utility 4D
$37,145 $30k-$40k 16 8 300 48.00
134. Porsche BOXSTER Convertible 2D
$44,595 $40k-$50k 20 6 240 48.00
135. Audi ALLROAD 4.2 QUATTRO AWD Wagon 4D
$47,970 $40k-$50k 16 8 300 48.00
136. Cadillac SRX 2WD Sport Utility 4D
$47,995 $40k-$50k 15 8 320 48.00

pantyraider

Stupid comparison. The Z06 has a ridiculously tall 6th gear as do the other supercars on the list.

b0mbrman

Wouldn't that affect the highway mileage much more than the city mileage?

Malloric

Yah, but its got the skip-gear feature for in town driving

In all honesty when you've got that much torque down low ridiculously long 6th gears and 1st to 4th shifts make a lot of sense. As far as EPA testing goes a corvette is basically a 3 speed.... 1, 4, 6.

cdelena

Since vehicle weight is ignored this index tells nothing valuable.

switchcars

yea, this index is pretty useless, they need to remake their equation, so it relies MORE on mpg than on hp, because all the cars with massive HP just own the list.

something like x=(0.5HP*(mpg*2))/100

Slithr

Now you've changed the whole comparison. The only reason it needs to concentrate more on mpg is because you want it to --- tree hugger

You are right that the fuel economy curve probably gets pretty flat at both ends of the spectrum as hp goes up or down. So 700 hp at 12 mpg looks as good as a 300 hp car at 28 mpg.


I imagine that the vehicle weight is factored in the EPA mileage stat.

cdelena

No, the weight makes the difference in performance! Dragging around 3000 pounds with 180HP sucks but with 500HP it is a different game. A more meaningful index of performance per gallon might be:

(100/(weight/HP)) * city MPG

The S2000 would be (100/(2800/240)) * 20 = 171

The Z06 would be (100/(3200/505)) * 16 = 252

But a big truck with the same HP and mpg as the Vette would rate as:
(100/(5400/505)) * 16 = 149

And their top pick the Toyota HIGHLANDER HYBRID 2WD Sport Utility 4D would be:
(100/(4070/268)) * 33 = 217
Giving it a good score for mileage but recognizing there is less performance.