mpg is a rubbish measurement. I have a better one.

[pilchardthecat]

As the late great JFK once said

"Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product ... if we should judge America by that - counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

"Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."

I rather think we make the same mistake in the measurement of economy in the motoring world. Thus I propose a new measurement;

£ / bhp / 100miles

So if you work out the cost of the fuel you'd need to go 100 miles, then divide it by an (albeit simplified) "enjoyment quotient" of the number of horses.....

Of my recent cars (using my actual figures)
Z4M = 0.0619
123d = 0.0620
330d = 0.0738

For comparison the new prious (using claimed figures)
prious = 0.8606

Edited for maths stupidity. Some oif which may remain.

Edited by pilchardthecat on Wednesday 24th November 10:26

[Petrolhead_Rich]

pilchardthecat said:

£ / bhp / 100miles

So if you work out the cost of the fuel you'd need to go 100 miles, then divide it by an (albeit simplified) "enjoyment quotient" of the number of horses.....


For comparison the new prious (using claimed figures)
prious = 0.8606

Whats a Prious?

Shouldn't your equation be (£/100miles)/bhp

[zakelwe]

0.053 for a diesel Yaris superchipped.

Which means by this logic is is better than those 'orrible Bimmers.

Hmmm, not sure I agree.

Andy

[mnkiboy]

So... My Leon Cupra costs £60 to fill up and does 250 to a tank, which is £24 per 100 miles. It has 300bhp.
Divide 24 by 300, and I get 0.8

Is this better or worse than a Prius. Are we aiming for the lowest number possible?

Edit: Oh, divide by 100 again, so I get 0.008. I think. Huh?

Edited by mnkiboy on Wednesday 24th November 10:32

Edited by mnkiboy on Wednesday 24th November 10:33

[pilchardthecat]

doogz said:

So, calculate how much 100 miles worth of fuel will cost, divide by bhp, the higher the number, the worse the result is on your new scale, yeah?

0.16. What do i win.

The lower the number, the better. It represents, effectively, the cost per horse.

[Pints]

So more power means more enjoyment?

I think you've been watching too many Top Gear reruns on Dave, with Clarkson doing his angry walrus impression.

My MX5 has less BHP than my Golf, but it's certainly more fun.

Calculation Fail.

[zakelwe]

Pints said:

So more power means more enjoyment?

I think you've been watching too many Top Gear reruns on Dave, with Clarkson doing his angry walrus impression.

My MX5 has less BHP than my Golf, but it's certainly more fun.

Calculation Fail.

Perhaps it is better classed as an efficiency rate, how much bhp you can get per fuel worth per 100 miles.

Or is it? I feel a bit like that woman trying to talk about the gold standard when instead I should be thinking about fluffy kittens.

Andy

[pilchardthecat]

Pints said:

So more power means more enjoyment?

I think you've been watching too many Top Gear reruns on Dave, with Clarkson doing his angry walrus impression.

My MX5 has less BHP than my Golf, but it's certainly more fun.

Calculation Fail.

"then divide it by an (albeit simplified) "enjoyment quotient" of the number of horses."

It's an approximation.

Perhaps it should be "cost per 100 miles per bhp/tonne?"

[zakelwe]

Now you have introduced weight to complicate matters further just as I was getting to grips with this new system.

Andy

[300bhp/ton]

pilchardthecat said:

doogz said:

So, calculate how much 100 miles worth of fuel will cost, divide by bhp, the higher the number, the worse the result is on your new scale, yeah?

0.16. What do i win.

The lower the number, the better. It represents, effectively, the cost per horse.

So, but what does that mean?

My 80hp smart is far more fun than the 106hp Nissan it replaced....

[pilchardthecat]

It's a work in progress

It was inspired by a though i had at the petrol station, along the lines of "even though i'm spending almost twice as much on fuel, it doesn't annoy me half as much as it used to"

[Rawwr]

Flawed equation! Try this:

(Total Horsepower[bhp] * Length of Penis[cm] * Girth of Penis[cm] * Gross Salary[£])/Number of Children

The higher the number, the happier you are.

[mnkiboy]

Rawwr said:

Flawed equation! Try this:

(Total Horsepower[bhp] * Length of Penis[cm] * Girth of Penis[cm] * Gross Salary[£])/Number of Children

The higher the number, the happier you are.

I was doing fantastically well until I got to the end. I have no children.

[300bhp/ton]

zakelwe said:

Pints said:

So more power means more enjoyment?

I think you've been watching too many Top Gear reruns on Dave, with Clarkson doing his angry walrus impression.

My MX5 has less BHP than my Golf, but it's certainly more fun.

Calculation Fail.

Perhaps it is better classed as an efficiency rate, how much bhp you can get per fuel worth per 100 miles.

But wouldn't that depend on how you drive though? I've had a best of 58mpg from my Roadster and a low of 38mpg. I know which one was more fun and it certainly wasn't the more efficient one.

[wombat172a]

Your 100 mile factor is completely unnecessary, essentially your formula boils down to this:

X = £_per _litre / (miles_per_litre x hp)
or
X = £_per_gallon / (mpg x hp)


What it shows you I don't know as the wedge comes in at 0.001


As we're pretty much all using the same fuel the first factor of £_per_litre is shared by nearly all of us including prius.

So MPGxBHP would provide a similar scale.

The wedge is now 4800

Edited by wombat172a on Wednesday 24th November 10:51

[Pints]

Rawwr said:

Flawed equation! Try this:

(Total Horsepower[bhp] * Length of Penis[cm] * Girth of Penis[cm] * Gross Salary[£])/Number of Children

The higher the number, the happier you are.

what if you have no children? You can't divide by zero. Equation fail. Back to the drawing board.

[pilchardthecat]

Oh fk it. You're all the sort of people that said in 1985 "those home computer gizmos, they'll never take off, just a flash in th pan"

Go on feck orf the lot of you. There's just no pleasing some people

I'll sweep up, throw some old blankets over the furniture and then turn the lights out.