You guys see this dumb crap?

[MysteryMachine]

Is Ford Going to Shut Off Your Mustang's Engine? | AmericanMuscle.com Mustang Blog

That's pretty damn gay

 

[Chythar]

I'm sure you'll be able to turn it off in the computer. The title of the article made me think it was some sort of remote shut-off, but it's just talking about having the computer shut the engine off when you're stopped at a light. I don't think it will work well with gasoline-only cars, because when the engine was off there would be a short delay after hitting the gas pedal - takes a second to restart the engine. It's a good idea with hybrids, you can run on battery power while the engine restarts.

The tech is all talk right now, it's not necessarily something that will be implemented.

 

[AngelaS]

This has been implemented on quite a few cars in Europe with very little problems. It is past "theory" at this point. For all practical uses, the delay in starting is negligible and the fuel economy can improve by something like up to 20% in heavy city driving.

I'm sure Ford would make this very easy to disable, when considering the nature of the 'Stang. It would just be an added benefit for those of us who drive in the city. Don't be surprised if this appears on lots of cars soon.

 

[Jeffrey]

It's called a stop-start system. From Wikipedia: For non-electric vehicles (called micro-hybrids,[1]) fuel economy gains from this technology are typically in the range of 5 to 10 percent.

Problem is, you have to switch to an electric compressor for the AC or it won't work when stopped.

 

[HISSIN50]

I kinda wonder about stuff like that. Even in big German cities 20 years ago, people would turn off the cars at red lights. The lights would turn yellow before green so you had time to turn your car back on before the green light. The red-light waits were kinda long.

I always wondered if the start-up emissions (possibly needing to let the O2's heat back up, etc) might offset the savings. Granted that tech has come a long ways since then (things were relatively advanced over there for the time), but I still wonder about the efficacy.

I always liked the idea of cylinders on demand.

 

[Kdubslugga]

Good thing Toyota doesnt have this, theyd have all kinds of Kamikaze editions with this stuff!

 

[revhead347]

I know the new Porsche Panamera has it. Like someone said, it's past technology. Honestly, it's free fuel economy, and car manufacturers can't pass it up with the CAFE standards coming down as hard as they are. I don't think it wil make any difference at the track. All you have to do is hold a little throttle in there, and the engine should continue to run.

Kurt

 

[Zero_chance]

To my knowledge, Ford will bring this to regular gasoline engines down the road when they are equipped with direct injection. Starts are almost seamless since the computer will know exactly where each piston is and be able to fire the exact amount of fuel into the appropriate cylinders to get the car running without the relatively long drawn out process of waiting for the starter to crank it over several seconds before catching and firing it up. If done right, it has the potential to save on some gas and will go largely unnoticed by the driver in most cars.

 

[ProKiller]

i hope they make it easy to turn off. i just imagine your reaction times at the track if you pull up to the line and the car shuts off while waiting for the tree.

 

[HISSIN50]

And/or get things a little higher-tech and have the engines and traffic lights communicate with each other. The lights would tell the engines when to turn back on (just before they turn green).

 

[COBRA90GT]

I'm getting sick of all the "green" tree huggers out there - how are we supposed to rev at the other driver next to you at a stoplight in the future?

 

[MysteryMachine]

lol I know right