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How does the car engine that Doug Pelmear developed get the equivalent of 110 or more miles to the gallon and still keep its horsepower?

He told The Blade: marriage and frugality.

His technological achievement has been the marriage of an electric motor into his E-85-fueled V-8 internal combustion engine, he said. It also has controls, he said, that allow the combined power plant's output to range from more than 400 horsepower to as little as 15 horsepower, depending on what is required at the time by the accelerator.

This range of energy output is accomplished because his gasoline-powered engine can transition from running on all eight cylinders down to firing on just one, Mr. Pelmear said.

Other automakers have used so-called "variable displacement" - shutting down usually half of an engine's cylinders when not under load - for several years to improve fuel economy. But unlike other designs, Mr. Pelmear said he has discovered a way to vary which cylinders shut down. He avoids excessive carbon buildup in part because he uses cleaner-burning E85 ethanol gasoline as his fuel source instead of a standard gasoline blend, he said.

The engine's power plant picks up added efficiency because his incorporated electric motor - greatly responsible for the 500 foot pounds of torque the power plant generates - operates on a pulse basis, instead of at what is called full saturation, Mr. Pelmear explained. In other words, the electric field used to generate power to the vehicle's wheels can rapidly cycle on and off as required, saving energy.

The vehicle uses just two "spiral core gel" batteries, common in racing, one on each side of the vehicle, and reclaims some energy from more established technology, such as regenerative braking, which captures energy that otherwise would be lost as a vehicle decelerates, he added.

In addition to how it uses energy, Mr. Pelmear's design picks up efficiencies because of tight tolerances and sturdy design that reduces engine vibration and heat, all of which drain energy output from traditional vehicles.

The resulting combination has allowed Mr. Pelmear to log more than 22,000 miles of real-world driving on his 3,250-pound 1987 Ford Mustang over the last 18 months with an average fuel economy of 109.85 mpg.

EPA testing confirmed that - without the benefit of a catalytic converter, which his design does not require - the Mustang's tailpipe emitted 86.6 parts per million of hydrocarbons and 0.46 percent carbon monoxide, both well below the newly imposed EPA standards for all automakers of 132 parts per million and 0.73 percent, respectively.

So how does Mr. Pelmear's design differ from other vehicles with electric drive components?

A traditional two-mode hybrid, like the Toyota Prius, for example, uses its gasoline engine and electric motor in tandem - so that when one is working, the other usually is not. Such vehicles have large, heavy banks of multiple batteries that are charged up by the gasoline engine and drawn down by the electric motor.

Other vehicles coming to market, like the Chevy Volt, use stored battery power from a plug into the electricity grid to power their electric motors until the stored power runs out, when they begin to operate on small gasoline-powered engines.

- Larry P. Vellequette

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