Tacoma and the Russian Pencil

I remember an old story about how NASA spent millions trying to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity and the Russians just used pencils.

What does this have to do with the Tacoma?

Toyota engineered a complex Atkinson/Otto cycle engine with Port and Direct Injectors, in a v6, in a medium-sized truck, with an overengineered transmission that thinks/shifts too much. You get about 18mpg.

FCA engineered an old-school 6.4 v8 pushrod engine, gave it MDS and it gets 17, same weight in the overall vehicle.
FCA engineered a 5.7 v8, gave it MDS in the RAM, a truck weighing much more, and it averages 18.

This is not "FCA rules, Toyota sucks" but it just seems to not make a whole lotta sense to overengineer their powerplant and transmission shifting to get basically nothing that others dont get easier.

I would expect, with all that complexity and engineering the Tacoma to get significantly more MPG.

Thoughts?

 

Friday!

 

What the heck is a pencil?

 

Concur. One of the reasons we travel with the wife’s ram and I hunt fish locally with the Tacoma

 

Hurray for another Friday thread.

 

Friday classic, this should be good!

Now where's my Scotch.. ahhhhh yeah, there it is.

 

When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. The americans were distraught knowing they could not take notes in space...

To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion to develop a pen that:

writes in zero gravity,

upside down,

underwater,

on almost any surface including glass

and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300 C.

The Russians used a pencil.

cost 30 cents

 

HipSI within 2 pages. Bets?

 

I think long term reliability should be considered. For example, I've heard form several former HEMI engine owners that they will never go there again, and don't trust that engine beyond 100k miles. I have 110k now, I feel like she's just getting started.

 

18mpg’s? I’m getting 21/24 mpg and I haven’t experienced the transmission searching for gears. Guess I got lucky.

 

Best of both worlds.

 

Ah... another "Trucks these days are way too complicated with all their unneeded gadgety" and "I can't believe this truck still has drum brakes and no Apple CarPlay" thread.

 

Over under post 49 lol

 

hiPSI by reveals himself on 4.

 

Also fuckin Russians used pencils because they couldn’t afford potatoes. If they had the budget we had, they would have invested in pen R&D.


The simulated Atkinson is just stupid as hell.

 

BTW, anyone tags the engineer and all bets are off! Irony: repeated shitposting is making my odds longer.

 

Don't pencils produce tiny shavings of carbon that float around, permeate electronics, cause shorts and turn high tech equipment into space junk?

 

Winner gets what? Winner should get SOMETHING. And don’t tell me a free internet. I want something tangible I can put in my mouth like a werthers original

 

I do like my "space pen" though. It never leaks in my pocket. Thanks NASA>