February 23rd 2007.
It's taken over 100 years to develop the internal combustion engine to its present state of refinement.

Rotary engines and two stroke engines are essentially going to fall by the wayside.

The former because its inauspicious fuel economy and the latter because of its tendency to pollute unnecessarily.

But the good old piston engine could easily go on for another 100 years in one form or another. The fuel it uses may, eventually,
change but the principles of its operation will survive. The uninformed media are bombarding us all with the theory that humanity
is going to hell in a hand basket. Electric cars and hybrids are being touted as the only way to stop the polar bears from drowning
and to turn the world into one large, glorious rain forest.

So why will the old Otto cycles' "suck, compress, ignite and blow"  system survive for so long?

Because many other options have been tried and have failed. Rover produced turbine cars in the 50s and one turbine even ran at
Indianapolis. They are smooth, comparatively quiet and will burn almost anything but their emissions levels are very hard to control.
Rotary "Wankel" engines reached the point at one time where Mazdas' whole line of vehicles including trucks were rotary powered.
Fuel cell technology reaches back to the early 60s, Volvo produced the very first hybrid over 15 years ago and I have personally
witnessed stationary diesel engines running on pulverised coal dust. My professor of mechanical engineering at University went
to his grave bemoaning the fact that we had not developed the steam engine sufficiently and he always claimed that steam was
a vastly superior form of power production.

Against all of these challenges, the internal combustion (IC) engine has reached such an advanced stage of development that it
will be very difficult to replace at a reasonable cost. Most of this development in recent times is due to the availability of cheap
microprocessors (you know, the ones that illuminate your check engine light from time to time).

Unfortunately, most of this electronic control is being used to increase horsepower, while maintaining old style fuel economy standards.
For the life of me I cannot understand why a Chevrolet Impala, needs 303 horsepower to propel a family of four to visit granddad and
grandma on a Sunday. Or Costco on a Saturday for that matter.

You can turn this technology on its head and produce a 33% increase in fuel economy and improved emissions, just by tuning these
engines for that purpose. Performance will suffer, but Porsches and Ferraris are special and only populate a small percentage of the
market. So why does anyone need a 244 horse power minivan, when the same truck could be tuned to produce a steady 40 mpg?

Of course the good old IC engine can give you both superior acceleration and much more fuel economy, if only the Americans would
see the error of their ways and start buying diesels. Imagine NASCAR, diesel powered and running with half as many refuelling pit stops.

In the 60s a good F1 engine could produce just over 300 horsepower, now a a 3.5 litre Acura engine can match that performance
with all the emissions controls and full driveability.

IC engines are becoming so efficient that one day we may have to find alternative ways of heating a car, because waste heat has
almost all been used up in propulsion.

That problem already exists with small diesels, because of their efficiency.

Combine these levels of efficiency with the supremely compact energy storage represented by gasoline and diesel and all the
alternatives you are being pounded with on the seven o'clock news are a long, long way off.

So stick to mainstream, proven technology. Don't get pulled onto the rocks by the siren call of alternate fuels and and power sources
and the IC engine will continue to serve you well, long after I'm out of here.