Phoenix, Arizona : Ever heard of the " Fuel Saver " ? It's a small container of a special platinum solution that feeds vapors into your engine through the vacuum system. The advertising claims almost makes it sound like a cure-all for the ills of mankind -more power, less pollution, more miles per gallon. Well , the skeptics here at Keepin' Track snickered, just like when we read about the magic spark plugs with similar claims. The snickering got real quiet, however, when the testing began.

The first step was to establish a performance baseline and mpg (miles per gallon) baseline for the test car. We used the super accurate Vericom VC-200 the " drag strip in a box" to establish the performance baseline. The Vericom is a great device: you just set it up on the dash, plug it into the cigarette lighter and PRESTO ; digitally displayed 0 to 60 (or other speed) and quarter mile times. It's really that simple! We did half a dozen runs the day before the " Fuel Saver" was installed. The canister fit like a glove behind the battery in our test car-and off we went.

For fuel mileage tests, we planned a trip to the beach ( 600 miles total), and did not use the Fuel Saver for the trip out-only the trip back. Our one way mpg was noted with everything "standard" (i.e. no Fuel Saver) and the return mpg was recorded with the fuelsaver on.

Now, as I previously noted, we are usually quite skeptical about magic "cure-all" devices, but the mpg actually improved a few percent on the return trip. Now mind you, the home base is 1000 feet above sea level, so the trip out was downhill, and the return trip was uphill. Not only that, but it got real warm on the way home, and we needed to use A/C ! the increased mpg under these conditions was really surprising! I must say, it sure opened a few eyes around here.

-Joe Lupo-