Why not make cars that make sense?

Making a car faster than the speed limit is a waste of fuel and resources. It must stop or we will waste most of our fuel reserves.

Detroit and others have sold the idea of faster is better and now we need a new sales pitch if the auto industry and ecology are to survive.

Audi, Porsche, Mercedes Benz and Honda all have super cars as their flagships, as have GM, Chrysler and Ford.

Why don't GM or Chrysler who are financially strapped change their flagship to the most sensible and practical car? Because the market won't buy a car without sex appeal? Why not spend less and have a car that will be able to do the speed limit, will not accelerate near the speed of light, but does 100mpg?

Advertising is the biggest problem. How do the big car makers suddenly do an about face and change tactics by aiming a little further up the evolutionary chain.

Years and years of barking up the wrong tree by promoting the lowest common denominator is competing in a self made dinosaur market governed by who is faster from zero to 62mph.

It would seem to me that they would do better educating buyers towards smaller cars, many of which are recyclable to a large degree as well as using far less raw materials to manufacture and cheaper to buy, run and maintain.

Mini cars alone are not going to provide the whole market and apart from size and weight the biggest problem is too much unneeded horsepower in larger cars.

Today's cars have the potential to be very much more efficient and economical than at any time in the past. With electronic engine and drive train management systems already fitted to newer cars the opportunity to double fuel mileage is here right now.

Why is the technology being wasted on making cars become faster, with more horsepower instead of building cars that have very high fuel economy ordinary speed and a very low cost to manufacture, through providing less power and better fuel economy?

Fat arsed thinking is my guess. No conspiracy theories, as humans we are already dumb enough to just screw it up.

Australia has produced some of the world's fastest road cars.

We have many 500 hp v8 Utes and sedans running around the city and suburban streets usually with no load and carrying just the driver. I have driven the locally made Utes or pickups and they have more than enough power to pull 2 tonne or more even with the smaller less powerful motor fitted. To fit all the luxury in the cabin the rear loading area has been reduced in size so much you would have to load it with house bricks to carry a full tonne!

To transmit all that power to the road without bending the body and chassis it has to be heavy. It is the horsepower that dictates how much weight has to be in the vehicle, not the size of the vehicle alone.

The same vehicles could be built much lighter with a smaller power plant and return phenomenal mileage.

You would think that more people would opt for the smaller engined Japanese utes of 2.4 - 2.7 litres with the same carrying capacity.

OK they won't climb mount Everest with 2 tonne onboard and gain speed on the way up, but who needs all that for a one ton ute?

Cars can be made from many materials. Like Food product waste from manufacturing processes, waste products from grain production, the skin off bananas or almost any fibrous material.

The design of a concept car for this century is a simple matter. We already have the technology built in to all modern cars, we only need to up the power/rate ratio by applying the electronic power management systems we are currently using. we only need to scale down the excessive top end speed and useless illegal over-performance.

Let's see what a new concept car that could achieve results that make a real difference to responsible motoring would look like.

• Top speed 110kph or 68mph. This leaves enough extra speed to ensure safe passing when mistakes are made and the best decision is to accelerate rather than brake.
  

• 40% less Horsepower. Taking in to consideration the reduction in corresponding weight and other trade offs this should result in an acceptable performance being maintained without being excessive.
  

• More interior space. As the powerplant and transmission will be physically smaller, more space is available to interior space gains.
  
• Manufactured from organic waste. Many experimental cars have been made from anything from banana skins to newspaper, and many were made for a very low cost yet did not take off. This does not mean they would not sell well today in a world that needs everything to be recycled and recyclable.
• Engine heat should be reintroduced in to the cars power output and this should include hot gasses from exhaust as well as engine cooling. Heat is energy and harnessing it is a lot easier every year with new materials like ceramics now available for conversion with low heat losses during transfer.