Classic Cars

By Bob Gelber

The good news is that you are finally here for the official start of the summer season. The bad news is that it cost you more in gasoline than it ever has to get here.

I want you all to take this moment to go out to your driveways. If you have a gas-hungry SUV or high-horsepower sedan, slap it on the trunk and shout, "bad boy." Conversely, if you are smart and lucky enough to own a smaller car that gets over 30 miles per gallon, give it a good wax job while softly crooning "good boy." This may sound silly, but I'm trying to make a point.

The point is that today you have got to be out of your mind to drive a car that gets lousy gas mileage. First, because it's bad for your wallet and second, it's bad for America to be dependent on those greedy whackos that control the oil spigot in both the Middle East and Texas.

America has always built the best looking and best-selling cars in the world. Compared to Europe, gasoline has always been cheap in this country. We have led the world in design and engineering achievements that usually include large V-8 engines powering most American cars. The 1957 Chevrolet, considered by most car collectors to be the most attractive car built in the fifties, carried a newly designed small block V-8 engine that got about nineteen miles per gallon. Nobody really cared about gas mileage then - the car was beautiful and gasoline ran around 45 cents a gallon.

Unfortunately, since then, American car manufacturers have been building the same types of cars. American vehicles have been selling on three-year redesign cycles and every year they have been getting more powerful. This marketing strategy has finally caught up with them. The big three American automakers are in dire straits simply because they were incredibly shortsighted not to foresee that gasoline prices were going to eventually go through the roof. They neglected to predict that the American buying public might want more fuel-efficient vehicles.

I've come to the conclusion that most Americans want big vehicles, no matter what. There are solutions, but there needs to be a breakthrough with engines. Throughout the history of transportation, it was the development of new engines that revolutionized the art of moving from points A to B. The Wright Brothers had to design and build their own engine to get their flying machine off the ground. Every other engine of the period was simply too heavy. Jet propulsion and the turbine engine took aviation to another level. The rocket engine took man into space.

The gasoline automobile engine has been under development for over a century. The gasoline engine is a wonderfully dependable piece of machinery but the technology is still a century old. Someday, when new and powerful long life batteries are invented, the cars will be 100 percent electric. The concept of the battery is almost as old as Thomas Edison, but a real breakthrough is needed to extend battery life and power.

For the last several years, there has been a lot of talk about hybrid cars - cars that have electric motors helping a gas engine. It's a great idea, but hybrid power is really nothing new. Prior to World War One, the great automotive engineering genius, Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, invented a truck that had electric motors in all four wheels that were powered by a small gasoline generator. These German trucks were successfully used as weapons' carriers during the war.

To those of you who came out to the Hamptons on the Long Island Railroad, congratulations! You were riding on one of the world's first hybrid vehicles. For over 50 years, this train has been powered by an electric motor driven by a diesel.

Also note that most Navy ships are hybrids. I think there is a real future for diesel hybrid vehicles here and around the world. Speaking of diesels, I love them for cheap, efficient power. But that's a whole other article. Welcome to the Hamptons. Save gas. Walk on the beach and ride a bike.

Bob Gelber, an automotive journalist living in the Hamptons, appears regularly on television as an automotive expert. You can email him at bobgelber@aol.com

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