[thinking]

Finally, someone lays the facts on the table....for my money; there is enough engery in one gallon of auto gasoline to drive a car all day....all we need to do is get higher efficiencies in the conversion to mechanical work...!

[Poohbah]

Starting and stopping combustion every few milliseconds isn't exactly the most efficient way to power anything...

[biblewonk]

Finally, someone lays the facts on the table....for my money; there is enough engery in one gallon of auto gasoline to drive a car all day....all we need to do is get higher efficiencies in the conversion to mechanical work...!

Here is one for you. I have a 500 lb honda 750 shadow, it looks and sounds like a Harley, and it gets 60 plus mpg at 60 mph. My weenie neighbor, who has a shirt that says "femanist chicks dig me" which couldn't possibly make him more different from me inspite of the fact that he rides a moped, has a 49 cc moped. It top ends at 40 mph. You'd think a POS like that would get a thousand mpg but it gets...75 mpg. Can you believe it. It takes the same amount of energy to do the same amount of work. 2 cycle engines are grossly inefficient. I'd love to drive a 750 diesel motorcycle. I bet it would get over a hundred mpg and I can only imagine what it might sound like.

[WOSG]

.all we need to do is get higher efficiencies in the conversion to mechanical work...!

Eminently doable, as the Honda Insight (70 mpg) proves!