Word: shetley
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1979-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Into Washington last week tootled a brightly painted car that, its builders claim, had made the more than 800-mile drive from Oak Hill, Fla., on only twelve gallons of diesel fuel. Ralph Moody, 61, and Mike Shetley, 36, two former employees of the Ford racing team, had come to show Henry Jackson's Senate Energy Committee the converted 1979 Mercury Capri that they contend gets more than 57.2 m.p.g. in city driving and nearly 80 m.p.g. on the highway. They say that it also accelerates from 0 to 60 in 17 seconds and has a top speed...
...changes to the car are essentially straightforward. Moody, an engineer, and Shetley, a car buff, made some aerodynamic changes in the body of a standard Capri, stripped the drive train, rear axle and motor and added a Pinto transmission, a Mustang rear end and a Perkins diesel engine. The key change was putting on a turbocharger. This reroutes hot exhaust gases (which would normally escape from the tail pipe) to a paddle-wheel turbine that compresses the engine's air-fuel mixture and gives the motor a sudden burst of power...
...make the car, Moody and Shetley needed six weeks and $10,000, of which $5,200 was the price of the Capri. They hope that they can eventually mass-produce the Moodymobile for as little as $7,400. Although noisy, the car already has its supporters. Says Bill Gordon, chairman of the automotives department at Daytona Beach Community College: "I was skeptical when they brought the car in for testing. But it does everything they said it would and more...
More skeptical, Detroit's automakers at first showed little interest in the Moodymobile. Chrysler President Lee Iacocca last week announced that he would like to meet Ralph Moody, while Ford Motor executives plan to hold talks with Shetley about supplying cars for further conversion experiments. General Motors sent the director of its new devices section to study...
| 1 |