It's an urban legend that came out of the old Shell mileage competitions. They'd take something small like an Alpha, scrap the tread off the tires and inflate 'em up to whatever psi, shave the heads for more compression, run the carb lean, use pulse and glide, etc... to get high mileage out of passenger cars. Well, word does get around, but by the time most people hear it, it's gone from some guys screwing around and getting good mileage to a 100mpg carburettor. The peak right now seems to be about ~100-150mpg@ out of something w/ the same size and aerodynamics as a Honda Insight.\
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Originally Posted by Brian D.
I thought you could tweak the original patent just a bit and still keep it / er, renew the patent. At least, that's the game big drug companies play.
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Iirc, someone else can still make the original thingy per the original specs after 15 years, but a company will time the filing of patents so they always have exclusive rights to the latest and greatest version.