Aircraft Inspired Avion= 1,550 Pounds

Diesel Powered Avion Gets 117 MPG On Goodyear Tires

Posted September 1 2010 07:05 PM by jason.thompson
Filed under: Diesel Car Reviews, Diesel Passenger-car

I met up with the Avion team sponsored by Goodyear and their Assurance Fuel Max tires as they made their way through the fast and mean LA traffic. Last I heard they were averaging 117 and120's mpg with the 799cc Mercedes diesel.

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This information is from Avion:

The car has been designed to be manufactured in small volume using recycled components from the automobile recycling yards. Utilizing standard engines and drive trains installed in the Avion's light weight and aerodynamic body we can achieve significant improvements in fuel efficacy and performance making the Avion both fun to drive and while getting great mileage. In our testing the car we were able to achieve 80 mpg At 70 mph and an astonishing 114 mpg at 55 mph driving from Eugene OR. To Portland OR.

The chassis is a monocoque 6061 aluminum with steel space frame on either end. The engine is transversely mounted behind the passengers making the car a transverse mid engine configuration. A lightweight composite body is attached and riveted and bonded making a very stiff and lightweight structure. The cars are hand built and more labor intensive than high volume production. Extensive use of composites, Aluminum and lightweight design are used through out the car to achieve our target weight. Construction is more closely related to small airplane construction than steel stamped automobiles. We utilize all available technology in construction as laser CNC, vacuumed bagged cored composite construction and the latest in composite materials like carbon fiber, Kevlar and "S"-Glass.

The car is standard with four-wheel disks, independent suspension, and rack and pinion steering systems.

The body was designed to reduce drag and wind tunnel derived and tested. It requires only 3 to 6 horsepower to maintain highway speed and this gives the car a top speed over 100 mph.

August 2010 will mark a new milestone for Avion Cars. The Avion will be driven
from Blaine, Washington near the Canadian border to San Ysidro, California near the
Mexico border – a distance of some 1,400 miles without refueling. The drive will start
on Sunday August 29 and finish on Wednesday September 1.
The Avion will be powered by a 67 HP diesel engine and carrying 18½ gallons of fuel.
Craig Henderson, Avion’s builder who will be driving the car, says that if all works out
according to plan, there will be fuel left over at the end of the drive!
For this enterprise, Goodyear Tires is providing sponsorship and the Avion will ride on
Goodyear Assurance Fuelmax tires. Goodyear will also arrange for media publicity
coverage. Publicity events enroute are planned for Portland Oregon, Sacramento
California and Los Angeles California.

Original Avion Specifications - 1986 (except engine and transmission)

Builder: Craig Henderson

Designer: Bill Green: I talked with him today at the event. He teaches at Virginia Tech.

Avion: Mid-Engine, 2 Passenger, High-Tech Sports Car.

Brakes:
Type: Girling/Neal balance beam
Front/Rear: Disk

Chassis/Body:
Type: Aircraft alloy aluminum monocoque center section, Tubular steel front and rear spaceframe.
Body material: Carbonfiber/S-glass hybrid.

Dimensions and Capacities:
Wheelbase: 92.95”
Track F/R: 62/62
Length: 63.5”
Height: 43”
Ground Clearance: 5.5”
Curb Weight: 1550 lbs
Fuel Capacity: 11.0 gal
Drag Coefficient: Cd=.27

Drive Train:
Transmission: 6 Speed from SmartCar

Engine*: 799 cc Mercdes click link for Specs

Interior:
Seats: Leather adjustable
Dash: Oiled Rose Wood
Trunk Volume: 14 ft. cu.

Mileage:
Highway: 100+

Sound System:
6-way speaker system
AM/FM stereo with power amp

Standard Features:
Sun Roof
Semi Gullwing Doors
Light Weight Polycarbonate Tilt Steering Wheel
Concealed Halogen Headlights

Steering:
Type: Rack-and-Pinion
Turns Lock-to-Lock: 3.3

Suspension:
Front: Independent, Long & Short Arm, Coil Springs, Anti-Sway Bar
Rear: Independent, Chapman Struts, Coil Springs, Anti-Sway Bar

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Reader Comments:

1. Wow this car just gets better and better! All you had to say was aircraft and my interest was peaked. Suffice to say I know what I want for Christmas!

Jason, whats the over all production cost? Is it super high or very reasonable? The recycled part makes me think cheaper, but the aircraft aluminium alloy (which I think you need a special certification just to work with, maybe not in this situation though), carbon fiber, space frame, etc make me think very expenisve.

Gotta love that Mercedes-Benz diesel engine!

Also, I posted the comment below earlier today on one of your recent blogs. You guys probably know about this stuff, but I thought I would post it just incase.

Along this blogs lines, I just read on CarandDriver.com about the new Mazda Sky-D diesel engine. A 2.2L inline-4, sequential turbos, MEETS U.S. emissions standards with NO exhaust aftertreatment, has a low low compression ratio of 14:1, and turns 5,200rpm!! Interested yet? It has a bunch more new exciting technology on it. I would definitely take a read guys :)

http://www.caranddriver.com/news/car/10q3/mazda_sky-g_and_sky-d_engines-car_news

It goes along with Mazda's Sky-G gas engine. Suprise suprise the
Sky-D beats the gasser in both power and fuel economy handily!

Also, we will likely be getting a VW Touareg R model with a 4.2L diesel V-8 likely pumping out 380hp by 2012. It already meets U.S. emissions.

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/01/report-volkswagen-touareg-r-will-be-sold-in-u-s-with-a-diesel/

SmokenGun - Posted September 1 2010 07:44 PM

2. I was talking with the designer of the car Bill Green who teaches at Virginia Tech and he said this car could be mass produced easy. Although the one you see here was built by hand so it took awhile. He said this car has better visibility and leg room than his 1980's Ferrari...handles the same too.

Bill was awesome he loves diesels espescially the sound. Great guy.

As for your news about Mazda and VW that is awesome and hopefully we get more diesels here in the U.S. No aftertreatment sounds great...take care of business in cylinder is what I say. It might take a little more time and money to develop but well worth it.

My favorite part about this car is the underneath. No wind or salt will get stuck there. This is a real practical car with quite a bit of miles on it. Rememeber it was getting over 100 mpg two decades ago durring the last oil scare.

jason.thompson - Posted September 1 2010 07:55 PM

3. Bill sounds like an awesome guy! The sound and smoke from a diesel engine is what got me when I was little. The sound of diesel was amazing to me and the way diesels smoked really made me feel like they were alive. They had personalitys all there own. You knew when they were working hard and when they were loffing. You could tell if they were running well or poorly.

Once I did some basic research on them and found out there efficiency, power, durability, economy, etc I was sold.

-It should be noted I dont like smoke just for the sake of making smoke though. Im not one of those people who thinks its funny to black out mainstream downtown. But you guys know this.

I would love more diesel cars in the U.S. to mix things up a bit. Agreed, in cylinder is the way to go. I hate emissions junk im (some people) just going to remove later.

We have had cars like the Avion since the 80's and we waste our time and money of things like the Pruis, volt, and there illk.

Ive also been reading about Volvo truck history on there website. Also looking at old trucking brochures on Hankstruckpics.com. Im always finding new (to me) classic diesel engines I never would have figured were around. Nothing better.

SmokenGun - Posted September 1 2010 09:05 PM

4. I should mention more about Craig Henderson he is the fearless leader of the operation. I talked with him on the phone about a year back and he said he was going to go border to border on one tank of fuel. The first time I met him he was in the Avion coming south down the 5 freeway. He has a company called Bullfrog Boats. A real automotive visionary and will be recognized eventually. Plus great guy as well. Good people.

True words SmokenGun.

Read this:
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2010/09/arbpm-20100901.html#comments

jason.thompson - Posted September 3 2010 06:45 AM

5. Nice link! Very interesting stuff. Pick on diesels time right! Just because you can see soot from a diesel engine its gotta be killing people right? Is the soot from a diesel engine not the same as smoke from a camp fire? candles? barbecue? cigarettes, etc, etc? No more of those activities either. We could get ride of cigarettes though, I cant stand them.

And because the human eye is not powerful enough to visually see the particules coming out of spark ignitione engines there must not be anything there right...lame. Whats the ratio of gassers to diesels in CA (or the whole U.S.)? Im guessing about 10:1 No idea if thats anywhere near right though. How much do diesels really contribute to "air pollution"? Im mean if you took all the diesel powered anythings in the U.S. and compared that number to the number of spark iginition powered things what would that be like? Then compare the total time in hour each is run a year. I bet gasser have leaps and bounds over diesel in hours run.

What about volcanoes and earths natural proccesses?? Im willing to bet that one large volcanic eruption (like the one in Iceland) puts more particulate matter and "toxic" gases into the atmosphere than every diesel engine ever run has. Or very close.

Are diesels really burning the earth up? I think not.

I love CA's natural terrain and climate, but the goverment and regulations are insane to me.

I might have gotten off subject. Please call me on anything that you see wrong with what I said or something thats just crazy.

SmokenGun - Posted September 3 2010 03:29 PM

6. Oh ya, didnt you or Mike post a report that stated in most of CA the primary air pollutant was fine dust and sand particles from the natural terrain??

Also, how can CARB or who ever measure what type of particulate is killing people? Do they stick a sensor in people lungs (unlikely)! Can medical workers tell by looking at dead people lungs? Would they be able to come up with a definative answer that yes this person was killed by diesel particulate matter and not smoke from a cigarette or sometype of industrial particulate matter(cement, gravel, fiberglass)?

SmokenGun - Posted September 3 2010 03:34 PM

7. Well I do know no one ever said, "Man this air is too clean." I always thought CARB was over reacting when I lived in Minnesota then I moved to LA and it is pretty bad. Smog sucks. I've been to a few third world cities and the air is scary. One time in LA on a cold morning the fog was thick like out of a movie. I doubt it is natural. Still how to fix it is with more efficiency from clean diesels. I need to do more research on nano particles I found it is not clear cut answers and particles that don't come out sounds scary. Still you are right who knows how to sort out the pollution? Think of all the crap from body work I have in my lungs?

I think we can have power and clean air that is my goal.

CARB's heart is in the right place I just don't agree with the execution all the time.

I heard people living in LA during the 70's and 80's had to stay inside on certain days. Things are improving I hope.

Plus back home in Minnesota we can't eat all the fish we want because of Mercury pollution which floats in on clouds from out of state. Plus those "green" light bulbs are full of poisons the old ones weren't. Plus heat is not necessarily waste.

The National Geological Society says humans create 98% of the emissions compared to the earth on average. The amount of stuff we put in the air each day is in the millions of metric tons. To say this will do nothing is kind of strange to me.

jason.thompson - Posted September 7 2010 10:05 AM

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