Well, maybe it's not that germane for us vanagon owners, but ol' Einstein's
equation (E=MC squared) (don't know how to make my computer put that little
2 above the C) is the basis of this. So that's Energy equals Mass times
Velocity squared, and since the mass is a constant regardless of the speed,
you can easily see why it costs more to go faster. For the math
impaired,  here's a chart:

         E = M(25 X 25)  625M

         E = M(35 X 35) 1225M

         E = M(45 X 45) 2025M  (that's over 3X the energy required at 25 mph

         E = M(55 X 55) 3025M

         E = M(65 X 65) 4225M

         E = M(75 X 75) 5625M  (that's 9X @ 25 mph)

So, going 75 takes almost double the energy as going 55. As fuel prices go
up, this is more and more relevant. We're lucky that we've got a built-in
governor, eh? The "eh" is for the Canadian list members, since I didn't do
kph. :>)

Gabriel

At 10:35 AM 8/17/2005 -0400, Roger Sisler wrote:
>I just heard on the radio that driving over 60 mph is like paying .15 cents
>for each mile per hour over this figure.If gas is $2,50/gallon(dont we
>wish), driving 75 mph is like paying $4.75/gallon.I havent tried this
>myself,but it think it might be a bit high.75mph is a place I only approach
>by passing slower vehicles,and this only takes about 5 minutes.