Reader: More Info on the Holman-Moody Diesels with high MPG

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Reader: More Info on the Holman-Moody Diesels with high MPG

Posted By: Susoni
Date: Monday, 2-Jan-2012 12:56:57

Reader Jef4 sends us more info More reference on the Holman-Moody diesels. Apparently Holmans built several. Good thing they were able to align themselves deep within stock car racing or they probably wouldn’t be here now. Jef4 **************************************** Moody Turbo-Diesel...Over 80 MPG Newspaper article: 1979 Revolutionizers Of Auto Industry Mike Shetley and Ralph Moody are two nice, down home fellows who live in a little known area in Volusia County, Florida. Nevertheless, before too long their names might be enshrined along with greats like Henry Ford and other revolutionizers of the auto industry. Of course, to racing insiders, Ralph Moody is a familiar name. He headed the Ford racing team about a dozen years ago and has been building car engines for about twenty years. As part of the Holman-Moody team based in Charlotte, N.C., he built engines for famed racing names such as Fred Lorenzen, Fireball Roberts and Dick Hutcherson. Now retired in Florida, Moody teamed up again with a fellow mechanical engineer and has come up with an apparently revolutionary innovation. What Ralph and Mike have done is develop a turbocharged diesel engine that has shaken up almost every executive from Ford Motor Co. to certain Arab firms in the Middle East. Why are they shaken? Because of the simple fact that Mike and Ralph's engine, placed in a sporty Mercury Capri, is so designed to get the phenomenal rate of more than 80 miles per gallon!! One might question the credibility of such a MPG rate. The first to do so was Bill Gordon, chairman of the automotive department at Daytona Beach Community College. Gordon has worked for Ford Motor Co. and performed emission test for the Environmental Protection Agency. So his credentials are reliable. Based on his careful testing of the engine, Gordon's recommendations exceeds even Shetley and Moody's. According to Gordon, the engine ran four times cleaner than any presently on the road and covered about 120 miles for less than a $1 worth of fuel! (1979 price) Other substantiating reports have come in regarding "Moody's Diesel" (aptly titled by the designer). Members of Congress have made the trip to Florida to check out the superengine. Sen. Howard Metzenbaum D-Ohio who serves on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee expressed his enthusiasm and interest in the engine by visiting two weeks ago. Authorities in the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Transportation Department and Ford Motor Co. have expressed definite interest in the testing of the engine. This article was taken from a local newspaper in 1979... There is much more to this story than this news article...Go figure!! Were they 'bought' out?? ------------------------------------ I remember when I was a freshman in high school I was reading an article on Moody in science class , he had just built the car in attached link ......... http://www.caranddriver.com/columns/...-an-80-mpg-car ---------------------------------------- Living in Charlotte I followed all the hoopla of the Perkins diesel powered Capri. Giving 60+ mpg, it was a car I certainly would have bought. Mike Shetley was Ralph's partner and promoter of this project. Like always Ralph was working hard in private outside of the media. But the project finally went away. A friend found one of the several project cars years later and spent a ton having it restored. Several years later I thought it would be a good investment to own and called him to see if he would sell it. I called 2 weeks too late.