EDITORIAL: Engineering ‘electron guzzlers’

“We don't want a gas guzzler,” my father asserted as we walked across the local Chrysler-Plymouth dealer's lot. It was early 1968; I was a car-nut school kid and he was a Mopar man on the hunt for a new station wagon. The average U.S. retail price of regular gasoline then was about $.30 per gallon. V8s reigned supreme. My ever-frugal dad wanted a big car for our family and so bought a 1968 Plymouth Fury III wagon - an 18-ft-long (5.5-m) land yacht.

As an arch penny-pincher, however, Dad eschewed the four V8s offered in the Fury in favor of the base inline 6-cylinder. Its 145 hp (108 kW) and the car's 4000-lb (1815-kg) curb weight conspired for an anemic power-to-weight ratio. No matter. There would be no gas guzzlers in our family's garage. The 225-six Fury got 18 mpg on the highway, while a 440-V8 powered model might eke out 13 mpg. Dad also deleted air conditioning: “Another waste of gas!” he lectured.