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Post by The Urban Mythbuster on Jun 13, 2013 2:34:34 GMT
New quote for the Top 25 List: Robert Lee (as Jamie accelerates in dump truck): "Like an angry walrus, the truck heaves into action" Fun fact: During the course of the show, Adam said that the MBs have gone through forty-four (44!) different Busters & 'Buster analogs'...that's almost as many dummies as you'll find in Congress... Results... Car Cushion: In a way, I am surprised by the results. I suppose I brought into Jamie's theory of 'any padding is better than no padding'... Hypermiling: Some of what they did is common sense (i.e., drive at a slower speed, drive a constant speed, gradual acceleration & deceleration). The problem is that some parts of the test aren't practical for real life driving (shutting off car at every red light). I did expect to see a noticeable gain in gas mileage, but was skeptical about reaching an 100% gain.
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Post by ironhold on Jun 13, 2013 3:28:35 GMT
I have a bit of a bone to pick with the padding myth.
Adam & Jamie presumed that anyone who came in at 350 pounds had to be a fat ball of lard.
Well, I'm 320 and built like a 1960s pro wrestler.
In fact, because I'm more husky than fatty, people frequently guess me to be a lot lighter until I tell them.
I quite literally am big-boned (which helps to explain why I'm so heavy yet have a lower body fat percentage than my health nut mom), and I've got a bit of muscle underneath the surface layer of fat I've got going.
And oh BTW, I'm out of shape. I need to get back into the gym to get my muscle tone back. At which point I'd come off like a grizzly.
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Post by The Urban Mythbuster on Jun 13, 2013 3:44:48 GMT
Good point there. When faced with an impact, muscle & fat react drastically differently. Muscle has more give than fat does.
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Post by the light works on Jun 13, 2013 13:54:07 GMT
however, I believe in the movie, the cops were fat.
I think the whole hypermiling mythos could fill a season to be any kind of thorough about it. a couple of details I picked up on: driving significantly slower than the pace of traffic is illegal in many places, including California. the fact that they only did the downhill leg while hypermiling skewed the results. they should have also done coasting downhill in gear vs. coasting downhill in neutral. for a fair test, they should have driven the same distance, then measured the remaining fuel.
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Post by Cybermortis on Jun 13, 2013 14:12:13 GMT
...And for those who paid attention might recall that the Car-Cushion myth was mentioned in the Buster interview on TC over two months ago... Did we get an exclusive? Myth Confirmed
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Post by Antigone68104 on Jun 13, 2013 14:31:11 GMT
Hypermiling: I think they were dancing on the edge of illegal driving a few times. I can't speak for California, but in Nebraska there's a minimum 40 MPH speed limit on the interstate. It would be very easy to dip under the limit if you missed the timing on your coast downhill/accelerate uphill. I'd also like to see what their speedometers were reading while coasting through those curves; either the sound guys were playing around, overinflating tires makes them squeal, or they were taking the curves too fast.
While I would have liked to see them address the time that hypermiling adds to a trip, it was outside the test parameters. None of the hypermilers on the old Discovery boards ever talked about it.
(And 17 MPH city driving? "Well, there's your problem!")
Car Cushions: I haven't seen the movie, so I don't know if the cops were large/muscular or fat. I don't know how much difference it would have made; when I'm getting ready to throw a pot roast in the crockpot, it's soft but not particularly squishy.
To be honest, my thought as they were packing the dummies into the back seat was that the three dummies would react as a single unit, because there was no space left.
It was nice to see the Beast back in action, though.
Oh, and the Aftershow provided another good quote -- Jamie was reading the questions this time.
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Post by ironhold on Jun 13, 2013 15:12:47 GMT
Good point there. When faced with an impact, muscle & fat react drastically differently. Muscle has more give than fat does. Due in large part to the mass media, a lot of people seem to be of the belief that "slender and muscular" means the person is at the height of their physical strength, while having any body fat whatsoever is a sign that the person is fat, if not hideous. This couldn't be further from the truth. You see, "building for looks" and "building for strength" are two different processes. Back when I did weight training in college, my coach was *very* uptight about the matter and so made a point of explaining the differences to us. As part of it, he noted that people who build for looks can actually make themselves weaker in several different ways if they do it wrong. The most basic mistake is to develop the muscles in an improper fashion, thereby limiting one's range of mobility. However, the most extreme - and the most dangerous - is to build too much muscle too quickly; there is a limit to how much the human skeleton can support, and so if a person is too built then they're stressing their own frames to the point of self-destruction. In contrast, consider legendary pro wrestler Karl Istaz - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Istaz . Istaz, like many wrestlers of his day, built for strength. In fact, Istaz' workout technique was almost as famous as he was: after learning various techniques from wrestlers he saw in India, he abandoned the use of weights in his training and instead focused on using his body's natural resistance. The end result was that, although he would be considered "chunky" by today's standards, he was a top-notch athlete who was legitimately feared in the industry due to his prowess; one organization never gave him a title fight for fear that he'd ignore any and all scripts and win the match anyway. Vintage pro wrestlers weren't the only ones to catch on to how they could leverage their own bulk in a fight. If you look at the sport of boxing, a lot of your vintage heavier-end fighters had similar builds; sadly, it, too, appears to have fallen prey to media notions. But go over to weight-lifting, however, and you'll still see men as thick as trees. They keep their bulk in just such a fashion as to strengthen their core, allowing them further feats of strength. Perhaps one of the few accurate media portrayals of the last 40+ years was on an episode of M*A*S*H. After an ambulance rolled into a ditch, the entire 4077 turned out to try and right it; however, even their combined might was insufficient to get the job done. Upon hearing of their plight, four big, burly military policemen pulled up in a jeep and righted the ambulance as if it was nothing more than a heavy piece of furniture.
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Post by PK on Jun 13, 2013 15:29:13 GMT
My only bone to pick with the episode was the camera crew who "just happened" to be waiting at the very spot Tory ran out of gas. We've all seen the "it's scripted" comments posted on the old site; when they do something that's so obviously staged, it only adds fuel to that particular fire. Better to stick with the in-car camera followed by a quick interview by the side of the road than to show him coasting to a stop in front of the crew. EDIT: As for new quotes for the list, did Robert Lee really say "Adam's got wood"?
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Post by ironhold on Jun 13, 2013 15:38:16 GMT
My guess is that the camera trucks were in radio contact with secondary crews that were further ahead on the road, allowing the secondary crews time to stop and set up in anticipation.
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Post by PK on Jun 13, 2013 15:42:56 GMT
Sorry, but I don't buy that. Even if they did, by some coincidence, pick just the right place where he'd roll to a stop (and remember it would have to be a turnout large enough not only for Tori to pull into but for the camera truck & crew to be set up and off camera) there wouldn't have been enough time for the camera crew to pull over and set up after he announced that he was out of gas.
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Post by The Urban Mythbuster on Jun 13, 2013 15:48:50 GMT
It would appear that they had at least two cars with film crews along with each car (to get multiple views) Perhaps, the side view crew pulled ahead as the test car coasted after running out of gas?
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Post by The Urban Mythbuster on Jun 13, 2013 15:52:31 GMT
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Post by PK on Jun 13, 2013 15:59:22 GMT
BTW, did anyone else notice that when Grant & Kari ran out of gas a CHP pulled in behind them? The cop was 2 cars back and visible from the in-car camera. At first I figured he was there as part of the filming (as when J&A did their "road trip" with Alton Brown), but I didn't see one when Tory ran dry (again, that was from the in-car camera, not the crew that was "waiting" for him).
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Post by PK on Jun 13, 2013 16:04:05 GMT
It would appear that they had at least two cars with film crews along with each car (to get multiple views) Perhaps, the side view crew pulled ahead as the test car coasted after running out of gas? Again, though, I have a tough time believing that they could have picked just the right spot, stopped, set up and started filming just as he coasted to a stop. We didn't see that with Kari & Grant.
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Post by Cybermortis on Jun 13, 2013 16:21:26 GMT
Sorry, but I don't buy that. Even if they did, by some coincidence, pick just the right place where he'd roll to a stop (and remember it would have to be a turnout large enough not only for Tori to pull into but for the camera truck & crew to be set up and off camera) there wouldn't have been enough time for the camera crew to pull over and set up after he announced that he was out of gas. Since they were apparently using footage from ahead of the test car, it is logical to assume that they were following another vehicle that contained the camera crew*. As soon as they ran out of gas they would have called it in, the car ahead would have pulled into a suitable place up ahead and the test car could simply coast in behind them a few moments later From what I can tell it seems that the film crew consists of two or three people - a cameraman, sound recorder and boom operator (holds the microphone). Only two of these would need to get out of the car to catch the test vehicle pulling up - in fact the boom microphone could probably be stuck out of the door so you only really need the cameraman to get out - and you'd be surprised how fast those guys can shift when they have to**. Even 20 years ago a full (location) camera crew was quite capable of getting out of a vehicle and shooting footage in seconds. Footage of talking to camera would probably take place a minute or so later, more than enough time for the crew to set up. This would be edited together to remove the 'dead' footage. (*And I'd assume enough gasoline to allow them to drive back to the shop.) (**Especially on Mythbusters, where the film crew has had to evolve to the point that they can more or less teleport themselves behind something solid 100 yards away before anyone can finish saying 'Run!'. Those who lacked this ability tended to get knocked out by flying Buster parts, or hit by flying food.)
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Post by the light works on Jun 13, 2013 16:28:50 GMT
if the film crew was in the back of an open vehicle, nobody would have to get out - just sayin'.
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Post by Antigone68104 on Jun 13, 2013 17:09:17 GMT
BTW, did anyone else notice that when Grant & Kari ran out of gas a CHP pulled in behind them? The cop was 2 cars back and visible from the in-car camera. I missed that, I'll have to catch a repeat. They said on their Aftershow that they had a police escort for the drive. Tory had to keep reminding himself that the cop in his rear view mirror was part of the team, not there to pull him over .
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Post by PK on Jun 13, 2013 17:13:42 GMT
Sorry, I just have a tough time buying it.
It couldn't have been planned (since they didn't know when he'd run out; even he thought he would go a lot longer immediately beforehand). It just seems way to coincidental to have happened by chance.
What seems more likely is that he ran out & stopped (which we saw from the in-car camera). Then they gave him a bit more gas & set up. Then he went back and pulled in again for the camera.
It's not unprecidented. There have been a few other instances where it's been obvious that they've refilmed them(particularly KG&T) approaching & discussing something that supposedly just happened. Dropping the pig-in-a-sack onto the concrete parking lot comes to mind. I know there was a conversation about that on the old site, with various clues in the scene that gave it away. And again, that one was started by someone claiming it as proof that the whole show is scripted and staged, which is why I have an issue with them doing it.
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Post by PK on Jun 13, 2013 17:55:16 GMT
BTW, did anyone else notice that when Grant & Kari ran out of gas a CHP pulled in behind them? The cop was 2 cars back and visible from the in-car camera. I missed that, I'll have to catch a repeat. They said on their Aftershow that they had a police escort for the drive. Tory had to keep reminding himself that the cop in his rear view mirror was part of the team, not there to pull him over . Ah, that must have been it then.
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Post by breesfan on Jun 13, 2013 23:21:43 GMT
Don't really think it matters though since it was a 50 mph accident. Even though the cops in the movie were fat, I haven't seen it so were they fat or just big boned?
Thought the hipermiling was interesting but not sure you can really drive less than 45mph in some places. One question though, couldn't it have hurt the engine if you turn it on then later turn it off then turn it on?
I think that's just not going to work in real life because you can run into a light that is too short.
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