1966 Mobil Economy Run Winners
Recently the Commentariat have made a number of references to the Mobil Economy Run. Being the son of a Mobil- marketing father, my inculcation of the importance of this event began shortly after I was born. In a Mobil family, the Mobil (or Mobilgas) Economy Run ranked right up there with the Indy 500 and the Pikes Peak Hill Climb in the trinity of Mobil (Socony, Mobiloil, Mobilgas) annual holy events. Pilgrimages were encouraged.This photo depicts the winners of the 1966 Economy Run. In the front row, left to right, we have an Olds Toronado, a Buick and a Chevy Impala. In the back row, also left to right, we can see another Chevy Impala, a Dodge Coronet, a Plymouth Belvedere, a Dodge Dart, and a Rambler American. But wait–an Olds Toronado winning an award for fuel economy? That is like “The Rape of the Sabine Women” winning the award for Best Behavior in Classical Paintings for 1627. WTF?
The Flying Red Horse
The Mobil Economy Run was an outgrowth of the Gilmore Economy Runs in California in the early- to mid-1930s. Gilmore, which was acquired by Socony Mobil at about this time, was a real whizz at marketing its products, which included the Red Lion, Blu-Green, Roadamite, Lion Head and Smacko gasoline brands. (Really…Smacko?)
Socony (Standard Oil of New York) Mobil ran the Economy Run from 1936 until 1941, when any type of automotive “competition” ceased due to WWII. Mobil resumed running the event in 1950 and continued it until 1967.
Early on, the event was sanctioned by the AAA Contest Board, but after the huge crash at Le Mans in 1955, the AAA wanted nothing to do with any kind of auto racing. Hence was born USAC (United States Auto Club), which sanctioned the event until Mobil stuck a fork in it after 1967.
I win! I win!
The Mobilgas Economy Run was a very big part of Mobil’s promotional and marketing efforts. At the 1964 New York World’s Fair, the Mobil pavilion consisted of 36 driving simulators, all equipped with a steering wheel, accelerator and brake pedals, and TV monitors. The maximum possible score was 23.0 mpg, and as you can see, I beat out the other 35 douchebags, with a score of 22.8–and I didn’t even have a driver’s license. Yet all I got was this lousy certificate.
And way at the back sits one of my favorites, the rambler american. Probably had the highest overall average but sitting at the back of the classroom.
does anyone have a picture of the special fuel tanks used on the MER?
An interesting piece of automotive history. I never knew about the Mobil Economy Run before.
I would be cool if they brought something like this back to show you what kind of impressive millage you could get with a new non-hybrid, non-diesel, conventional gas engine car with careful driving.
I didn’t even know that they had a “dreadnaught” class in the Mobil Economy Run.
Any way to find out what the MPG’s scores were for the cars shown?
Hey, lookee what I found. Cool.
17.33 on the Toro, 19.24 on the Buick, 19.87 on the Impala V8.
Back row: Biscayne 6 – 21.04; Coronet V8 21.05, Belvedere 6 23.10, Dart 21.57 (not sure if a “large engine compact” is a V8 or a 6, and finally the Rambler at 23.8.
It is pretty amazing that the Rambler only squeezed about 2.5 mpg over a V8 Coronet.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19660323&id=mAcqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xycEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2946,750734
Good observation but I expect the V8 might have been the 273. It was pretty impressive. Even the 318 was impressive.
It’s a little surprising that the rambler was so low though. When I tried I could get about 24 on a straight hiway with my 68 Nova with the 230. Only did that a couple times because I was too young and impatient. Aerodynamics?
Could be a couple of reasons. First, the Rambler had a 232 cid six cylinder and the Dodge probably had a 273 V-8. Not a big displacement difference and the LA was a more modern motor. If the Rambler was an automatic, the Borg Warner units were not known for their efficiency while the Torqueflight was.
That 2.5 mpg is still a good 10% or so, which is significant. Even today, the real world penalty of going from a four banger Accord to a V-6 is similar.
The AMC 232 I-6 was part of the new family of six-cylinder engines that AMC rolled out for 1964. The Mopar 273 V-8 debuted that same year.
The AMC sixes were a clean-sheet design, so I don’t believe that the Mopar V-8 was necessarily the more modern engine.
The Belvedere /6 turning in 23.1 seems pretty good too, considering it was an intermediate just like the Coronet. We had a 273 powered ’66 Coronet 440 hardtop. I don’t know that fuel consumption was ever even a topic of conversation, although fuel availability became one in the ’70s. The Dodge often wanted something better than the ‘regular’ that was available as unleaded took over.
It’s worth noting that the numbers achieved in these tests weren’t quite as representative as they sound from Mobil’s description. I remember reading that one team with a strong record used trick ashtrays that served as accelerometers to allow them to tune their driving to be within known parameters of efficiency.
I along with 8 other Mobil employees in 1966 about 27 yrs old were the flag people into pit stops from LA to Boston. 7 days/notes parties. Now 50 years later many memories.
I find the old Mobilgas Economy Runs a fascinating topic, so thanks for this. I had forgotten about the Gilmore connection, which always reminds me of the old Indianapolis racing and stunt pilot Roscoe Turner. Turner was sponsored by Gilmore in the 30s and toured with a pet lion cub named Gilmore. When Gilmore the lion died in the 1950s, Turner had it stuffed and kept it in his home until he died in 1970. Gilmore (unlike Turner) now resides at the Smithsonian.
BTW, the Mobil flying horse (Pegasus?) was one of the great corporate logos. The Gilmore roaring lion wasn’t bad either.
Before
And after (with Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Tony Hulman on the right).
Its an elegant solution…..they should do the same with Oprah once she kicks the bucket……
Do we have to wait that long?
No, I would like to start as soon as possible…..
At first I didn’t understand your comment, but now I get it: You’re such a fan of hers that you want her reanimated, once science clears the hurdles… 🙂
The Toronado was a winner? I had a ’70 with a 455, and I think it had the worst fuel economy of any car I’ve ever owned — and that’s a group that includes a 1972 Buick Estate Wagon and a 1972 Olds 98 Regency. Well, the wagon might have tied the Toronado in spectacularly bad mileage!
I wanted to say the same thing, they must have had a 80lb jockey driving it at 50 mph.
I have always heard about this, but it was before my time.
Not having lived it, nor seeing how it was promoted, I am unable to determine who benefitted from this annual event. Did it somehow prove that a particular gasoline increased mileage per gallon? Did it somehow prove that a particular car was better? I don’t know.
When the EPA took over and we began seeing advertisements of ridiculously inflated mpg results, this became a pissing contest among the car manufacturers. As buyers we didn’t believe the figures – ever. When no one believed them anymore, the EPA updated their testing, and these new results fell more in line with the real world. Yet, I don’t know anyone who really believes those new figures either – except buyers of hybrids and other cars so painful to drive, owners memorize these lies in order to stop looking like idiots to others. Remember all those complaints about the competition between the Toyota and Ford last year? Bottom line – both companies produce a fuel saving car that is about as fun to drive as one could imagine, while saddling the globe with a vehicle that comes out of the showroom with 80,000 miles worth of carbon pollution already.
MPG is as good a variable to determine economy as taking someone’s weight and predicting how much it would cost to feed them in a year.
It was more of a car vs car thing, there were categories for each car, they had several cars and several drivers, I don’t recall all the specifics.
Well, the first ridiculously inflated mileage figures of the 70s were provided by the manufacturers themselves. I recall Ford sending various models on a Phoenix-Los Angeles run (pretty much straight downhill except for the climb out of the Colorado River valley so they could advertise ’74 Pintos getting 30+ and ’74 LTDs getting 25+ mpg. The EPA figures at least had the benefit of consistency among manufacturers.
Now over time manufacturers have found ways to optimize their cars for the EPA tests, either for bragging rights or to avoid the gas-guzzler tax. I can think of the shift light on early models of the Escort, the Corvette/Camaro/Firebird performance model forced shift from 2nd to 4th if you were accelerating along the EPA test profile, and various monkeying with gear ratios to maximize time in the higher gears on the EPA highway test, but I’m sure there were others.
The car companies took the Mobilgas Economy Run seriously, and had specially trained drivers do the competing.
Was cheating part of the game? Please! It was a competition! I don’t know if the engines were sealed, but there was some talk that the competing cars were driven, without air cleaners, behind cars dragging chains on gravel roads just to ease the clearances before the economy run began.
As Syke stated, the cars were driven as though there was an egg between the driver’s foot and the accelerator.
Thanks for the write up. Love the picture. I’ve been reading about cars since the late 1970’s and have seen various references to the Mobil Economy Run. Too bad they pulled the plug just a handful of years before fuel economy became the huge topic it remains today.
Its odd that they never thought about brining it back in the 70’s
Probably because the Run was gamed like crazy. I remember reading an interview with one of the drivers back in the 60’s. They’d pre-run the route, where it went thru towns they’d time the traffic lights. Figure out when to pull out after the light turned green (hint: not necessarily when the light turned green, but before it turned red again) so they could catch the entire string while lightly accelerating. I seem to remember that interview was the first time I ever heard the phrase “drive like there an egg between your foot and the accelerator.”
If I recall correctly, Pontiac was caught blatantly cheating in 1966 or 1967. I can’t remember the exact details of how it was done, but Jim Wangers mentioned it in his book.
These Mobilgas economy run guys did use some tricks along with ‘driving like there’s an egg under the accelerator’ i.e. coasting engine off downhill, shutting down the engine at lights and in some cases not exceeding 40 mph in overdrive/high gear. I remember a 1974 newspaper ad for the Peugeot 504 Diesel wagon getting “37.9 mpg” from Coast to Coast but they did put a little disclaimer indicating speeds “did not exceed 45mph!”
Honestly I want to see this again, although I guess we have this being done daily at some of the websites that let you track fuel economy and report the results to the world.
BMW recently made a lot of noise over their Mini diesel getting right from Cape Reinga in the north of NZ to Bluff in the south on on tank of fuel. They soon shutup about it however as their Mini uses a Peugeot powertrain and their propaganda as usual didnt wash well
I remember one where Peugeot (when they were still in the US) did a demo drive with a diesel car that did 40mpg plus. Which sounded impressive until you discovered it wasn’t a 4xx or 5xx series (the only models sold in the US at the time), and there were holding an average – on the highway – of 35mph!
Yeah, really.
There was a Motor Trend article around 1974 or so where they squeezed 50 mpg out of a Vega. It included all of the Mobilgas tricks plus stripping the car to the bare minimum, adding a spoiler, and so on.
That’s like the couple that hypermiles their diesel WV Passat, they claim like 70mpg, but doing 45-50 on the highway, which is annoying to others, and almost suicidal in some parts of the country.
By 1968 Mobil realized that the rules of the game were changing. Safety was becoming a big deal (a metric not measured by fuel economy), and after the formation of the EPA, the only fuel economy figures that could be quoted were those that were to be found on the window sticker, and those numbers came from the EPA. This became a big deal after the hybrids, such as the Prius, came out. The EPA doesn’t test cars with any accessories operating. That mean no AC, heat, radio, headlights, or anything else that would affect fuel usage. Hardly the way most of us drive cars on a daily basis. Pissed off that your new amazo machine doesn’t return EPA numbers. Blame the EPA, not the carmakers.
Since 2008, air conditioning has been included in the EPA test cycle.
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/fe_test_schedules.shtml
The idea of the EPA numbers has never been that they will be entirely reflective of real-world driving (looking at the fine print on the window sticker makes that pretty clear), but to create a level playing field on which different cars can be evaluated, so you don’t have to sort out whether a mileage claim involves normal driving or coasting down a steep hill in neutral.
The problem, of course, is that any time you give somebody a set of rules on something in which that entity has a personal or financial stake, they’re going to figure out ways to game the system. I don’t think it really makes a difference how you write the rules; even the most sensible and comprehensive system can and probably will be gamed and once one person figures out how, others will soon do the same. The EPA does keep revising the test cycles (as Pch101 notes, the latest include air conditioning and higher speeds), but automakers will eventually figure out ways to tweak it and the feds will have to revise it again.
The MPGe figures for electric and plugin vehicles are another matter …
What’s dorkier than wondering who won the Mobil Economy Run? Wondering when they stopped using the “Socony” name.
Seriously, when was it?
It was in 1966 when the new logo that is still used to this day was adopted. The company from then on was simply referred to as “Mobil”. Thankfully the Flying Red Horse was not exed out and is still used.
Thanks. I know the Gulf disc changed to its current form about that time, too. Interesting (well, to me at least) how the mid-’60s idea of “modern” has stuck with us for so long – even after both Gulf and Socony got swallowed up by competitors.
Easy way to add a MPG or two to one’s commute: At traffic lights with known long delays in excess of 30s (esp. during rush-hour), shut off your engine like hybrids do. Of course one must be attentive to the cross-traffic’s light change.
I have been told that it can also be pretty hard on the starter motor if you make a habit of it. I think cars with a stop-start function tend to have beefed-up starter motors, since most conventional starters are designed with the idea that they’ll be used occasionally — maybe six to 10 times a day at most, not every time you’re at a stoplight.
Actually, a engine in top tune at proper operating temperature should and will restart with just the tiniest starter bump. Most autoparts stores sell lifetime warranty starters. Go ahead and burn ’em up in the quest to save gas since the replacements are “free”. You’re welcome, Autozone, Advanced, and O’Reilly.
To this day I get a peculiar thrill from using some of the Economy Run tricks. On a daily basis I coast in neutral or with engine shut off (older truck, all manual), time traffic lights, engine off at lights and bank drive throughs, convert stop signs to yield signs whenever possible (30+ years of driving, no accidents).
But most importantly, I plan my trips to include multiple needs and go when traffic is lightest and organize my routes to minimize left turns (ala UPS) and stops. I’m definitely not of the texting-behind-the-wheel generation (I don’t even text, it reminds me of the BF Skinner bomb guiding pigeon experiments from WWII).
I’m pretty sure I save a lot of fuel with the E-Run techniques I choose to use, but I use up all my savings with my love for high speed.
When I was a kid and had a car that would overheat when the outside air temp got above 65 degrees F, I used these tricks not for mileage, but to increase my distance between radiator refills. that was the best winter car I ever had though.
For KiwiBryce and everyone else, a short British Pathé newsreel of the Australian version of the 1966 MER event:
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/10th-mobil-economy-run
A Google search also turns up this nice white-paper history of the event across the years (downloads as a MS Word document):
Heitmann, John A. Your Mileage May Differ: The Mobilgas Economy Runs, 1936-1968
Also, Car & Driver, July 1967: “The Truth About the Mobil Economy Run.” (can’t find the article online–anyone got a source?)
I’m curious why in 1966 there weren’t any 4-cyl cars entered? Perhaps VW didn’t think they needed to prove anything, or perhaps the results wouldn’t be as good as people might think!
Here is a link to a Renault ad promoting an economy run result in Australia, did 52.73 mpg (43.9 US)
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1301&dat=19661204&id=J6EpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7-cDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5485,6327037
A poster of results from the 1957 run – Renault again with 55 mpg (45.8 mpUSg), also interestingly they factor in the cars’ weight for ‘Ton mpg’ – for example the Renault drops to 54.5 and the best result there was the Standard Vanguard at 58.63.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Hhw5HoUrHiY/UB0Tt6zi64I/AAAAAAAB2hY/Unbkyb8cc-s/s1600/1957%2520Australian%2520Mobilgas%2520Economy%2520Run.jpg
they did them inEurope in the fifties and the sixties.
But I guess there was not much fun about them, because most of the times they were won by an aircooled flat twin Panhard car……………………
I won two certificates of merit on the same night as a 14 year old Bronx kid at the ’64 World’s Fair because my friend insisted we keep doing the economy run until he won one. He never did. But we had to go through at least a dozen times. Great memory.
Some mileage figures I can tell you from cars I own, in 1975 I drove my 1955 Olds steady on the interstate on a long trip, holding 60 mph, I got 21 mpg; 1955 Cadillac, road trip, 16 mpg; recently (I drive only old cars) short road trip, 65 mph, 1973 Olds 98 455, 15 mpg, 80% road; 1983 Buick Electra Estate Wagon, diesel, 30 mpg highway, 23 in town; 1985 Ford Tempo 4 cyl. diesel, 5-spd manual 52 mpg city/hwy combo, not going over 55 mph; same Tempo diesel, riding herd on it 70 mph, hard acceleration in city, 40 mpg.; 1988 Chevy Suburban, 3/4 ton diesel, 4 x 4, lockout hubs, road trip, 18 mpg; 1961 DeSoto, 361 engine, interstate, 19 mpg. I refuse to drive anything with a computer, because all they are good for is failing at the worst moment, then you have big buck repairs and a big wrecker bill as well. Point ignition has never failed, one time a condenser shorted, but I had another one in the glove box. Oh, and amazingly enough, for 5 years I drove a 1971 Chevy Kingswood Estate station wagon with a small block 400 in it – – someone had trimmed the power valve spring in it a little, and holding it at 60 mph on the interstate I could pull 19 mpg. on it – – only paid $150 for it, put in another $150 in exhaust and brake lines, drove it 5 years and sold it for $500. I even charged the a/c and it worked also. I refuse to wrap up the big bucks new cars cost nowadays, with their ultra-expensive repairs. It’s just a big ripoff!
The final Mobil Economy Run was staged in April, 1968. It was to have started in Los Angeles and ended at Times Square in NYC. However, by the time the entourage had reached Kansas City, news or Martin Luther King’s assassination led run officials to move the ending to the the Brickyard at Indy as President Johnson had declared that Sunday (the day the run was to end in NYC) a day of mourning. Just days after the books were closed on the 1968 Mobil Economy Run, the oil company and automakers decided to cancel further runs.