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Member
Posts: 11
Location: Espoo / Finland | Hello Everyone!
Does anyone have any pictures or articles from 1957 Mobilgas economy Run? There seems to be nice single headlight Imperial that won the race.
I got an Autolite-spark plug ad where's pictures of each mopar that took part on it.
Thanks.
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Attachments ---------------- 50_1_b.jpg (21KB - 310 downloads)
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Location: Rusting In New York, hello... | This is actually interesting, I hadn't heard the Imperial won the economy run that year. To win those back then called for close to a 20 MPG average - hard to believe from a 4500 lb Imperial with a 392, although not entirely surprising - a powerful engine with enough low end torque to compensate for the power robbed by an automatic trans, and the right rearend gear, should be able to give that kind of milage in most any car.
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Expert
Posts: 2721
Location: Minneapolis | I've only seen pics of Chrysler's entry, a Saratoga, in the '57 event. A note of interest is that Imperial won the 1956 MobilGas Economy Run in the luxury class. |
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Account Suspended (Steve Hobby Alias)
Posts: 3365
Location: North West Jorsey | So did the 62 New Yorker |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 520
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado | does the ad show the average gas milage for each car? If so what are they? |
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Member
Posts: 11
Location: Espoo / Finland | No, there's only mentioned
Imperial Crown - Winner in both highprice class and sweepstakes
Desoto Firedome V-8 - 2nd place in Upper-Medium Price Class
Chrsyler Saratoga V-8 - Winner in upper-meduim price Class
Dodge Coronet 500 V-8 - Winner in Low-Medium price class
Plymouth Belvedere V-8 - Winner in Low Price Class
I can try to get bigger pic for you.. |
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Location: Rusting In New York, hello... | I know I read somewhere the 1960 winner (Pontiac with an economy motor) averaged close to or just over 20 MPG as did the '61 winner (Chrysler Windsor or Newport, with a 361). I believe it because I had a '60 Pontiac and I got 18 on the highway. The '57 has to have been close to that, because I talked to someone who had a '57 Pontiac and he got pretty good gas milage with that - and they didn't win.
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Member
Posts: 11
Location: Espoo / Finland | If somebody has 1957 popular Mechanics or Motor Trend magazines there might be some info about the Mobil-run.
Markku |
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Expert
Posts: 2721
Location: Minneapolis | I would think this stuff would be readily available on the web, but I am not finding it! I was looking through my old mags and did find the Mechanix Illustrated where good ol' Uncle Tom McCahill test-drove the '58 Imp. Man, he was a classic! |
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New User
Posts: 1
| Are you still looking for info on this? I might be able to help some. Thanks |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 9900
Location: Lower Mainland BC | There is a whole book dedicated to this:
The Mobilgas Economy Run: A History of the Long Distance Fuel Efficiency ...By Dave Hermanson
https://books.google.ca/books?id=c38OAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA309&lpg=PA309&dq=...
(MobilGasEconomyRunBookCover.jpg)
Attachments ---------------- MobilGasEconomyRunBookCover.jpg (90KB - 188 downloads)
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 9663
Location: So. Cal | I would think the '60-'64 Chrysler would have a huge advantage running a cross ram setup due to the max low end torque available, but only if you had a really high gear set to couple to it. No other gear set was made for the car than 2.76. Make a 2.45 set of gears and you would nail this prize in a big Chrysler. The 392 hemi is also a good contender because of the really long stroke, coupled to the relatively small bore. That gives it a surprising amount of low end torque and limits it's fuel consumption, if operated at low rpm.
Edited by Powerflite 2018-02-20 11:32 AM
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Expert
Posts: 3967
Location: DFW, TX | Sure looks like they took a few turns out of that Imperial's torsion bars! Looks good and sleek... and efficient. |
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Expert
Posts: 2196
Location: Muskego, WI | I had a 1956 Imperial sedan 10 years ago, totally stock in every way. It was late production, so it had a TorqueFlite trans with 3.06 (or 3.08) gears. Drove it from the Milwaukee area (Waterford) to La Crosse WI, about 200 miles round trip plus a little in town driving in La Crosse for the weekend. Filled up before I left and after I got home, calculated 18.9 mpg for the trip! |
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Expert
Posts: 2490
Location: Kansas City, KS | Seeing Imperial and Fuel Economy in the same sentence is an oxymoron
All my 1958's average 6mpg city and 9mpg highway (unless coasting down a mountain) |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 915
Location: Pau, S-W France | Just making some searches about 58 Imperial & Mobil Economy Run pic: in 1958 Imperial is the winer with 20.5821 mpg ! Twice what i do usually ...
https://tinyurl.com/ycjcuoqw
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 9663
Location: So. Cal | That's pretty cool that they almost made a clean sweep across the price classes. Imperial, New Yorker & Belvedere. Only the DeSoto lost out to a Pontiac. Chrysler was at the top of their game in terms of engineering. |
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Expert
Posts: 3776
Location: NorCal | Driver technique had a lot to do with winning those economy runs. And, of course, a tuneup that would make the car no fun to drive. |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 9900
Location: Lower Mainland BC | 57chizler - 2018-11-04 4:28 PM
Driver technique had a lot to do with winning those economy runs. And, of course, a tuneup that would make the car no fun to drive.
Agree. I participated in some student SAE club economy runs while teaching in the College of Engineering University of Saskatchewan in the mid-1980's. Some of the tricks involved removing the windshield wipers, pulling the mirrors into the body, no heater or A/C on (no fans or compressors), taping the hood/fender joint, adding more weight (e.g. sand bags in the rear passenger foot well) to a) lower the car and b)help with the coasting momentum. In fact that was one of the better tricks: accelerate to above the required average speed then putting the transmission in neutral (clutch in on a manual) and coasting down to below the required average speed and then accelerating again. Repeat ad nauseum for the next 200 km or whatever it was. VERY boring, but effective.
So I am sure the Imperial driver did a few things.
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