Free Fuel Riding on the Wind

While most Americans are paying more than ever to fuel up their cars, one Texas man has found a way to make gasoline out of thin air - by simply modifying the shape of his half-ton pickup truck.

Using the principles of aerodynamics, Phil Knox's recent additions of an aero-shell, under-belly pan, rear wheel skirts, wheel covers and grill block to his 1994 T-100 Toyota pickup improved his gas mileage by 28 percent over the original highway mileage.

Building, testing and educating the public about aerodynamics, is part of the mission of Knox's Independence Technological Works - IT works. "I'm trying to verify claims of aerodynamics going back 70 years," the Denton, Texas man said.

The passion for aerodynamics awakened in Knox back in 1973 during the Arab Oil Embargo, and after his Air Force tour-of-duty in Vietnam. In early 1974 after reading about the benefits of aerodynamics in Car & Driver Magazine Knox says he was smitten. "Technically, I never recovered from the first oil crisis," he said.

Using the GI Bill, Knox was educated in mechanical engineering technology at Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas and soon streamlined his first vehicle - a Volkswagen Bus - with sound fluid dynamic principles. The bus achieved a 28 percent improvement in highway fuel economy just by changing its shape. "I've streamlined every vehicle I've ever owned," he said.

Typically, Knox can be found at gatherings such as an Earth Day celebration, handing out flyers and preaching the environmental gospel of aerodynamics, or out road testing his latest innovation. "When you go to a car lot - this isn't fertile ground for a conversation in aerodynamics with the sales people - they don't know the language," he says. The general terms of aerodynamics - drag co-efficient, airflow patterns, frontal area, aspect ratios, fluid dynamics - are not part of everyday conversation.

"I found out by accident," Knox says, "You live it everyday but you don't have the vocabulary to ever talk about it."

From a strictly Capitalist point-of-view, vehicles that are not aerodynamically efficient are losing money and not showing a good return-on-investment. "The business of America is to make money," Knox said, referring to the Horatio Alger quote. So Knox is compelled to urge people to stop buying gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs. "Stop the rags to riches trend these vehicles are setting for America," he advises. "Buy two fuel-efficient cars instead."

The worst offender is the Hummer, Knox said, which when compared to a hybrid car, is like losing 600 percent of a transportation investment. "It's like buying six dinners, eating one and leaving the other five," he said. "It's like stealing fuel from five families." What's worse, Knox says, is Hummers and large pickup trucks are eligible for up to $25,000 in tax break exemptions by being considered farm equipment, while the Environmental Protection Agency says these are the last kind of vehicles America needs on it‘s roads.

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