Engineer Doug Pelmear and crew redesigned a 1987 Ford Mustang to get 110 MPG and won could win $10 Million in doing it. He also claims that they didn’t trade power for MPG to do it.

“We redesigned a lot of different things on the [engine] block,” Pelmear told the paper. “It’s still a rod-and-piston engine; it just has a lot more electronics on it.”

Traditional gas engines operate at 8 to 10 percent, efficiency, while the engine on the Mustang, he said, is at 38 percent efficiency.

[…]

Pelmear entered his car to win the the $10 million Progressive Automotive X Prize: a race to find an affordable, marketable automobile that gets at least 100 miles per gallon.

“I’m an optimist, and I think people need to know there is hope out there,” Pelmear told the Toledo Blade. “That’s why I decided to enter the X Prize race. I could have sold this [technology] off, but then people might not have seen it.

Next up, Volkswagon’s Limited edition 1-Liter Car(282 MPG) for 2010.

VW, you’re seriously kidding me with that ugly POS aren’t you? Dear Zod, i hope you are. The only way you’re gonna get people to buy these things is if they look like actual cars and not some Baby Giant’s morning slippers.

(via mattpdx, treehugger, kmbc)