India is booming. The expanding population has overwhelmed the Bangalore-Mysore road the way a river floods its banks, and the flow of two-way traffic is choked with a living history of human transportation. There are belching herds of diesel trucks, diesel buses and iron-framed diesel tractors. There are wooden-wheeled carts pulled by brightly painted Brahma bulls, and two-stroke-motor rickshaws fueled by kerosene or cooking oil or whatever else is flammable and cheap. There are mopeds and bipeds and bicycles and motorcycles, and every conceivable type of petrol-powered, internally combusting automobile, from doddering Ambassador cabs to gleaming 16-valve Mercedes miracles. But there's only one car like the one Somender Singh and I are riding in right now.
Like ajisdragon I am ready to make the needed adjustments to an experimental vehical or bench engine. Like IanL. I too have seen and felt first hand his frustration. Yankee ingenuity huh. Mr. Singh is the best damn Yankee I've seen in a long time. I'm not degreed either but I have a good work shop and a good brain, and know how to measure fuel consumption accurately. I will start with a 3 or 4 hp bench engine and take it from there. Wish me luck, I will report back as time permits. I still have to work for a living between shop adventures. I should have done this three years ago when I read the article.
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