Original subtitles

This is a car.

And this is a car on "Mythbusters."

Do not try what you're about to see at home.

We're what you call "experts."

On this episode of "Mythbusters"...

Whoo!

...Adam and jamie have a heavy-hitting movie myth...

And it's a man.

"ar-rah-rah-rah-rah."

...Stuck between two chubby cops...

Come on! We got to get this guy to the car right away!

He's got an accident to attend!

...Could a sandwiched suspect...

Let's do this.

...Survive the mother of all truckin' t-bones.

Aah!

Boom!

Better than a cup of coffee, isn't it?

Wow.

Meanwhile,

Kari, Tory, and Grant

Have the most exhaustive fuel efficiency fable

In "Mythbusters" hisTory.

Follow us for fuel savings! Learn about hypermiling!

Could a troop of traffic tactics...

Engine off.

Shut off the engine. Let's save some more fuel.

...Really combine to double your miles per gallon?

I'm starting to get it, hypermilers -- I'm getting it.

Or is this a myth that puts the "rage" in road rage?

She just gave me the bird.

Yeah, you hate us. You hate science?

Who are the Mythbusters?

Adam savage...

Oh!

That's science.

...And jamie hyneman.

I'm ready.

Between them,

More than 30 years' of special-effects experience.

Together with Grant imahara...

Oh, it's burrowing!

...Kari byron...

It always makes me feel dangerous.

...And Tory belleci...

There's something you don't see every day.

...They don't just tell the myths.

They put them to the test.

-- Captions by Vitac -- www.vitac.com

Captions paid for by Discovery Communications

All right, jamie. I'm gonna paint you a picture,

And I want you to guess the myth -- are you game?

I'm ready. Here it goes.

It comes from a foreign action movie

Called "headhunters."

You can't shrink a head.

No.

In this movie, our hero is seated

In the back seat of a police car --

You can't drive from the back seat.

No.

Let me just get through the sTory.

He is seated between two really big cops.

And the bad guy wants to kill him so badly,

He takes a truck and he t-bones the cop car at full speed.

Except that our hero survives the crash.

Because he's protected by the padding

Provided by the two big guys?

Exactly.

In a car accident, could you be protected

By the people you are sitting between?

It's a movie myth

That puts the "wide" in wide-screen.

Could a set of heavyset policemen

Really protect you...

...From a terrifying truck t-bone?

Or has this myth got a fat chance?

So, what's the plan?

Well, this whole myth is predicated on the idea

That you're better off being between two big dudes

Than you are being alone.

I think that means we should see

If we can illuminate some of those forces

With a scale test.

See if we can collect some relative data?

Exactly.

This is the exact make and model

Of the car that gets t-boned

In the movie clip that we're replicating.

I'm about to mock it up in 1/6 scale

So that we can actually see

What's going to happen inside that car

When we hit it with the truck.

Adam's polycarbonate compact car...

...Is the first of four things the guys need

For their small-scale test.

All right. There it is.

Second is a truck stand-in,

And for that, Adam's got wood.

Great.

He's building a swinging battery ram...

Akunamuta!

...That should log the perfect t-bone benchmark.

The third ingredient is easy -- one crash test dummy.

That's awesome.

Which just leaves the padded policemen.

So, my little dude's ready to go into the rig,

But I need a couple of big dudes to place on either side of him.

What are they gonna be made of?

Well, humans are basically bags of water,

And that's what my big dudes are going to be.

I'm not gonna use straight water balloons, though,

'cause I don't want them to break

And I'd like them to be kind of barrel-shaped.

So I'm going to sew out of some really nice leather...

Ahh! I love the smell of leather.

...A pair of leather cylinders to house my water balloons in.

That should give us a really good picture

Of what it's like to bounce around

Between a couple of big dudes.

Ooh. Aah.

Dude number two.

With all the players primed, it's time to swing for science.

We're gonna smash our miniature car twice --

Once with a dummy in it by himself

And once with him padded by these two water balloons.

Now, we've got a sensor in here

Which will record the difference between those two impacts.

And for impact number one, baby buster's flying solo.

Scaled car crash in 3, 2, 1.

That was quick.

In real time, the tiny t-bone looked okay.

But slowed down, it was anything but

As buster got thrown left, right, and center,

Peaking at 150 g's.

Now it's on to the padded version.

For impact two,

Will the two cop cushions lessen buster's blow?

All right.

"oh, no! This truck's out of control!"

"no! Here it comes!"

3, 2, 1...Blam!

First impressions are that the crash seemed less intense.

Ohh!

That looks a lot better.

Wow. It's like a forced bro hug.

But what does the data say?

Our dummy experienced 30 g's from the impact

Between the two big guys.

He experienced over five times that --

Over 150 g's -- without that extra padding.

So if this actually holds up in the full scale,

It could work because 30 g's is survivable.

150 g's is not.

Next, a myth about going the extra mile.

All right. So, you guys have your driving shoes on?

Because this myth is the mother

Of all fuel-efficiency techniques.

It's called hypermiling.

Oh, is that where you drive a certain way

And it gets you really good gas mileage?

Oh, not just really good gas mileage --

Great gas mileage.

According to this myth,

There's just a few simple things that you can do

To double your mileage.

Regardless of the type of car you have,

You can significantly reduce your fuel consumption.

Wait. So, are these techniques legal?

Well, not all of them.

I mean, there is one where you can roll through stop signs.

But the ones that we're gonna be focusing on

Are completely 100% legal.

And they double your gas mileage?

That's what they say.

It's a question as old as the car.

Is there anything you can do

To make your gas-guzzler guzzle less gas?

Can some simple hypermiling techniques

Really double your mileage,

Or is this fuel fable running on empty?

All right. So, you mentioned a massive road trip,

But that sounds a little more like a finale, right?

Yeah, exactly.

Hypermiling is about taking a bunch of small techniques,

Combining them, and getting an overall fuel efficiency.

So, what I think we need to do

Is break down each of these techniques

And find out how fuel efficient each of them are.

Okay. So, what are they?

Actually, out of the top six,

We've already done three on our show.

For example, we know, at high speeds,

It's better to drive with your windows up

And your a-c on.

This test is being done

By professional drivers on a closed track.

Your results may differ.

We know that your fuel efficiency increases

When you drive relaxed.

And we know that over-inflating your tires by 10%

Can really boost your mileage.

We're getting less rolling resistance

And therefore, better fuel efficiency.

Yeah, but there are three that we have not tested,

And that is limiting your speed on a freeway,

Overall control of your acceleration,

And turning off your engine at a red light.

All right. Well, why don't we start with the speed test?

I mean, that's easy.

We could drive around a track at three different speeds,

Compare the fuel usage.

Sound good?

Sounds cool.

Let's hit the road.

So, that's six hypermiling secrets,

And the Mythbusters have already ticked off three.

However, before they put them all together,

They need to test the rest, starting with limiting speed.

But rather than hitting the highway...

We're gonna save so much fuel.

In your face, global warming.

...First they're hitting the runway.

We're here at the alameda runway to test hypermiling.

Now, a car is most fuel efficient at higher speeds

Because it's using higher gears

And it's using momentum of the vehicle.

But at a certain point, those gears max out.

You actually use more fuel to get more speed.

Not only that -- the faster that you go,

The more wind resistance you're gonna experience,

Therefore making it less fuel efficient.

So, there's a theory that driving slower

Might actually save you fuel.

And to test that theory,

They've set up a circuit one mile long.

Follow us for fuel savings! Learn about hypermiling!

They'll drive 20 laps at 45, 55, and 65 miles per hour

And get the fuel efficiency of each speed.

But how will they track their gallons per mile?

This piece of equipment right here

Is a very precise flow meter.

It'll tell us how much fuel we consume.

This is connected to the exhaust system.

It's got a temperature sensor, pressure sensor,

And a flow meter.

It's got a weather center here

That helps us out with humidity, atmospheric pressure,

And ambient temperature,

And a gps to tell us precisely how far we travel.

So, with the high-tech rig on board,

Now it's time to hightail it for the test.

Ready for a road trip?

45-mile-per-hour test.

3, 2, 1, begin.

Position running.

Road trip!

Don't worry. You're not seeing triple.

It's fun driving in circles, eh?

It is.

They do it in nascar all the time.

With over 20 minutes at the same speed for each test,

We're gonna need a split-screen montage.

I prefer road trips where we stop at destinations

Rather than take data.

What do you mean?

This is the road trip to science.

I think we're in the lead. I don't see any other cars.

And while fuel efficiency data collection

Isn't the most stimulating...

Sometimes you get to blow things up.

Sometimes you drive in circles with the air-conditioning off.

...The Mythbusters find a way to make it interesting.

It's a consistent pattern here.

Every time we go in this direction,

It's 18 gallons per hour,

And every time we go in that direction,

It's about 22 gallons per hour.

At higher speeds,

The wind resistance is affecting the gas consumption.

But will the hypermile speed of 45 miles per hour avoid that?

All right, kids. We're almost home!

Thank goodness.

Finally, after over 30 laps,

It's time to pull up and pump out the data.

And we're here.

And test.

Okay, let's take our numbers

Over to the data acquisition team,

Let them export them, and do our comparison.

I think we're gonna see some serious savings.

Well, it's over to kent johnson and his team

For the final tally on the fuel efficiency.

So, it's looking pretty good.

At 65 miles an hour,

We're seeing about 34 miles per gallon.

At 55 miles an hour, it improved to 17%.

And at 45 miles an hour, it improved about 30%.

That's actually really good for a myth.

Yeah, these hypermilers might be on to something.

They might, because a 30% saving

Just by decreasing your speed to 45 miles per hour

Is impressive.

So far, it's looking really good for this myth of hypermiling.

It turns out, after looking at the data,

That if you drive at slower speeds on the freeway,

You will in fact save fuel.

But that is just one piece in the puzzle,

Because remember, we're trying to put all these together

In order to double our mileage.

Later,

Can the Mythbusters double the bank from their tanks?

This stinkin' traffic

Is stopping and ruining my coasting abilities.

Shh! Shh! Shh! Calming.

And the big rig takes on a big gig.

That's a big dude.

But will buster survive?

He's smiling. He liked it.

Can being sandwiched between two corpulent cops

Really let you survive a tremendous t-bone?

Small-scale said, "maybe."

Ohh.

That looks a lot better.

So now it's time to up the ante at alameda runway.

Today, instead of remote controlling the vehicles

Or pulling them with cables,

Jamie and I will be driving this baby right here.

Oh, yeah. It's on.

Yep, for full scale,

The Mythbusters will literally be putting their lives

On the line for science.

That ought to do!

That's one big rig, and two truckers raring to go.

So, now to put the car before the horsepower.

Allow me to introduce you

To the car we will be smashing today.

It's not only the same make and model as the car

In the clip we're attempting to replicate.

It also has a special significance to me.

Here, take a look at this picture.

That's me at 25 years old, 20 years ago,

And that is my first car.

Yes! This is the same make and model as my first car.

Once the car's all lined up,

The final ingredient for test one is the passenger.

This is our human analog. It's called a syndaver.

It has individual muscles, bones, and organs

Just like a human.

Now, it will be our crash test dummy for this test,

And we're gonna x-ray it first

To make sure all its parts are intact.

Immediately after the accident,

Our dummy will be x-rayed again

And examined by friend of "Mythbusters,"

Orthopedic surgeon noah weiss.

And we'll see just what kind of injuries our dummy sustained.

Yep. It's all good.

Now, in the movie, our hero was seated

In the back seat of a car just like this

Between two large policemen,

And we will do that crash.

That'll have to do.

But in order to find out how good or bad

That might have been for him, we need a control.

And that's why, in this test,

Our guy will be seated all alone in the back seat.

Yes. You'll be fine. No. You won't be fine.

He's not gonna be fine at all.

And to quantify just how "not fine" he'll be,

The team adds pcb accelerometers,

Meaning the sandwiched suspect is all set.

I'm glad I'm not you.

Cautiously, jamie climbs into the cab

And takes the truck to the far end of the runway.

Then it's "go" time.

All right, jamie. Are you ready?

good to go.

Crash test control

In 3, 2, 1...Go!

Like an angry walrus, the truck heaves into action...

...Accelerating to the 50 miles an hour of the movie.

Here it comes!

Wow!

That was amazing.

That was one hell of a thud.

Talk about crash...

...Bang...

...Boom!

Their green machine's been totally totaled.

Well, that'll wake you up.

That impact was... It was frightening, actually.

Hitting up on the car at that speed,

You don't realize how fast you're going

Until you kind of get close to it,

And then you realize that this is gonna be serious.

And it was.

It was like a wracking explosion.

It was a bang.

Jamie may have lived to tell the t-bone tale,

But the question is, has buster?

He looks a little more flexible

Than he was when he first went in.

Well, firstly, dr. Weiss delivers his prognosis.

Dr. Weiss, how is our patient after that accident?

Well, this patient has sustained multiple devastating injuries.

There are fractures and dislocations of the neck,

The thoracic spine, the low back, and pelvis.

This patient is very, very dead.

Wow. I want to say thank you,

But also -- that's just so horrifying.

And for a second opinion, dr. Harding has the g-load.

All right, david. How did our guy do?

The chest saw 540 g's.

Ow!

And his head saw 620.

That's -- that's -- that's dead.

Deader than a doornail.

Yep,

Because that's over six times the survivable threshold.

The difference between this kind of crash

And what happens between a couple of cars

When they hit on the highway

Is that the truck here is a brute.

And the numbers bear that out.

You've got enormous figures on the g-loads.

The big question here is,

What happens when we put our dummy

Between a couple of fat guys?

Will he survive then?

Looking at this kind of damage,

It'll be really something if he does.

The Mythbusters are doubling down,

Testing if hypermiling methods can double your mileage.

Hypermiling's efficient, just not time efficient.

So far, limiting your speed to 45 miles per hour

Scores you an extra 30%.

Those hypermilers might be on to something.

But now to get off the freeway

And start hypermiling in traffic.

The plan for this experiment is pretty simple.

We've laid out a driving course.

You sure that Grant's the right person to be the test driver?

There's 20 laps per circuit,

And we have stop signs

And randomly timed traffic lights.

Now, for the first test, we're going to just get a bench mark.

It's our control. We drive normally.

Like their previous test,

High-tech wizardry will track the fuel consumption.

Okay, this is the control test for hypermiling, lap 1.

Let's do this.

And to make sure there are no other variables, the a-c is off.

All our designated driver Grant needs to do is drive normally...

Hey, mom, dad, are we there yet?

Not there yet, honey.

...Accelerating and braking as he usually would...

Oh, god. I hate this light. I know. It's so long.

There's not a single other car -- what's the hold up?

...And sticking to the speed limit of 30 miles per hour.

Science makes me car sick.

Then, after 20 laps,

They've got their control baseline.

It was really interesting to watch the equipment

As Grant was driving.

Even at idle, the car is using about 0.5 gallons per hour.

And then, when Grant was speeding up,

He was getting up to about 6.5 gallons per hour.

Now it's time to see what the techniques of hypermiling

Are gonna do and how it affects how much fuel we use.

Hopefully, we save some.

Yep, and those hypermiling traffic tactics

All rest on how you accelerate, stop, and brake.

Now, for this, you see a light,

You start to decelerate in case it turns red.

If you have to stop at a red light,

You turn the car completely off.

And then, when you start up again,

You accelerate really, really, really slowly

To save as much gas as possible.

Now, acceleration is basically burning fuel,

But braking is a complete waste of the car's energy

Because you're basically stopping all the momentum

Of the vehicle.

Now, how's this gonna translate into the fuel consumption?

That's what we're about to find out.

Okay, painfully slow acceleration.

You're doing well.

Uh-oh. There's a stop sign coming up.

Decelerating early.

Make a full complete stop.

Really smooth acceleration.

This is like my driver's ed test.

Interesting thing. There's no peaks right now.

It's all just kind of consistent, low fuel usage.

Just like the control,

Grant must stick to the 30-mile-per-hour speed limit.

But this time,

He's limiting both his acceleration and deceleration.

See, you slow a little bit

In anticipation of a possible red

And rolled through it.

Nice. Yeah.

And when they don't catch the green light...

Oh, oh, oh, oh. Here comes the light.

Slow. Slow. Slow.

Shut off the engine. Let's save some more fuel.

Engine off.

We should have done this during the winter.

Green light. Oh, geez.

Okay.

Just like the control,

They complete 20 sweaty circuits,

And eventually, it's time to find out how fuel frugal

This technique really is.

- All right. - Whew. We made it.

Nice driving. Thank you.

Well done. Whew. Ohh.

So, the results are in. Let's take a look at the data.

Now, I need a graph here.

As you can see, in Grant's control test --

Him driving normally, which is a little scary --

He was able to get 13 miles per gallon.

But then, on his hypermiling test --

His eco-friendly driving --

He was able to get 17 miles per gallon.

That is a 30% increase. This is incredible.

But remember, this myth is about doubling your mileage.

So, we need to take all these techniques,

Put them together,

And see if we can get that mythical double mileage.

aah!

That's another two ticks for the hypermile code.

Which means it's time to put it all together

And go road tripping.

I love you, too!

There's no way a solo middle-seat suspect

Will survive a t-boning truck.

Whoo-ha!

This patient is very, very dead.

But will some big-boned busters help?

We've now come to the point in the episode where it's time

For jamie and I to make a pair of plus-sized busters.

Now, here's the problem we have.

They got to weigh 350 pounds apiece,

Which means just making them is going to be difficult

Both in terms of moving them around,

Installing them in the car, et cetera, et cetera.

There is so much static electricity in this foam.

Check out my hairdo. Whoo!

So, we've come up with what I think is the perfect solution,

Which is to carve our dudes out of an open-cell foam.

I'll state outright I've never worked with a piece of foam...

This freakin' big before.

I didn't even know you could get them this big.

Then we will coat the outside of our carved figure

In a hard rubber

And put it in the car.

Is this how michelangelo starts the pietà?

I know what you're saying.

"that doesn't weigh as much as a person."

No, it doesn't. That'll make it easy to install.

Once it's in the car, we will fill it with water.

It's a lightweight solution to a heavyset problem --

Two giant blocks of foam

And two Mythbusters armed with two very different ideas.

Adam's going for the sketch-it-and-see approach,

Drawing an obese outline and letting rip.

Jamie, on the other hand, is being a little more methodical.

To sculpt my fat guy,

I could just start hacking away at a chunk of foam,

Which is what Adam is doing.

I opted, instead, to do it from a computer-generated image

That I found online.

This is a top view of our guy,

And what we've done is slice him in chunks

That end up looking like this one.

This is around the midsection of his body.

This top surface represents the top surface

Of a 4-inch slab of foam.

So, when I cut this out, all I have to do

Is stack all these other pieces together...

One fat guy in 2-d.

...And I've got my guy.

It's classic "Mythbusters."

Adam forges ahead fast and furious...

Come on, fat man! Show yourself!

...While jamie is more slow and steady.

One using intuition...

I'm starting to figure out what he looks like.

...The other using ingenuity.

This doesn't look like much right now,

But as soon as I start stacking these blocks,

It's gonna turn into something.

But before long,

Both are taking shape...

I'd say that's a pretty heavy guy.

I'm so in love with this thing.

...Even if one has been a little neater.

This is the sum total of my scrap.

I'm just saying.

Next, jamie moves on to adding a plumbing system...

That's how we're gonna get the water in.

...So that his foam figure can become big-boned.

There we go. He's plumbed, and he's got a skeleton.

Now all I have to do is make him look real.

Meanwhile, Adam's got a problem.

His chubby chum is just too big.

He's a giant, and I don't think he'll fit in the car,

So I'm gonna take about six inches

Right out of his center chest here.

Luckily, a few nip and tucks later...

Much better.

...And Adam's dummy is ready

For it's own plumbing parts.

Nice. Yeah. Isn't that cool?

That just leaves two things.

And it's a man.

"ar-rah-rah-rah-rah."

First, a split-screen time lapse

While the full-figured foam is finessed...

Man, they look fantastic.

...And second, a leak-free rubber skin...

One coat down, he is almost done.

...That'll let their chunky creations hold water.

Over the past 10 years,

We've done hundreds of experiments

With 44 different busters and buster analogs.

Right at this moment right now,

Mr. Orange here is my flat-out all-time favorite.

And once mr. White and agent orange are all dried up...

It's clobberin' time.

Yeah!

Keep on trucking...

Let's do this.

Here we go!

...'cause after the break,

Will the boys in blubber save buster?

My sphincter tightened!

In hypermiling,

Tory wants one more pre-road-tripping test.

Next, we're gonna see

About taking off the side-view mirror of a car.

Apparently, it makes the car so aerodynamic

That it gives you better mileage.

And for some quick aerodynamics,

It's off to the n.A.S.A. Water channel.

You ready for the big show? Yeah.

Here it goes.

Nice.

All right. So, that is the side with the mirror,

And you can see the drag

Where the dye is just hanging there.

All right. I'm gonna move to the side without the mirror.

And it flows right away.

It just goes right by. There's no drag.

Yep. Removing a mirror to reduce drag

Should result in more fantastic fuel savings.

Do not try what you are about to see at home.

We're what you call "experts."

Want to save money and time at the gas pump?

The Mythbusters do.

So they're joining the hypermile club...

- Oh, oh, oh, oh. - All right.

Shut off the engine. Let's save some more fuel.

...To find out if this fuel saving system

Can double the bank from your tank.

For our hypermiling grand finale,

We'll be driving this 2012 sedan,

The one that we've been using for all of our shorter runs,

But we're throwing another car in the mix.

This one's five years older, and it has over 75,000 miles on it.

Grant and I will be in the brand-new car,

And Tory will be driving this one.

Don't worry. He won't be lonely.

Buster's in the passenger's seat.

He's a great conversationalist.

Now, for our test,

We'll be using our same fuel measurement system.

But we're also gonna be measuring

The old-fashioned way,

And that is by driving till we run out of gas.

Here we go -- exactly three gallons.

So, we're gonna be driving one giant lap

Around the bay area, about 150 miles.

Now, that's a good distance,

And it's gonna give us a real-world average.

We're gonna be driving through city streets,

Country roads, and freeways.

And to avoid traffic,

We're gonna drive in the middle of the day,

So that way, we don't have any extra variables

Messing up our data.

Give me those.

It's the fuel efficiency road trip to rule them all.

They're even adding an aerodynamic skin

And removing a side mirror

To combine every single fuel-saving tip

For hyper-hypermiling.

All right. Let's save some fuel.

With three gallons of gas on board,

Drivers, start your engines.

Adios, suckers. Let's hypermile.

It's going to be intense,

Because they've got a hypermiling checklist

A hypermile long.

Never drive above 45 miles per hour.

Done.

Remove the wing mirror on the passenger door.

Done.

Avoid braking and rapid acceleration.

Done.

Turn off engine at stoplights.

I don't like this at all.

Try and stay relaxed.

Green light. Green light.

Gentle.

Not turning on the a-c. Done.

Legally drafting when the opportunity presents itself.

Okay. I haven't had that opportunity yet.

Overinflating our tires by 10%.

They're at capacity.

Cover the cars in streamline skin.

Done.

And lastly, try to navigate intersections

So we're always going through green lights.

I think we're doing well.

But hold on.

Aren't we forgetting something?

what about a control?

Well, luckily, they did that yesterday.

It was a control cruise of an identical route...

I forgot -- I don't speak wookiee.

I also speak klingon.

I bet you do.

Qah'ta!

...At an identical time of day...

We can play this game.

You want to play the silent treatment?

I can play the silent treatment, too.

...Under identical weather conditions...

Wow. This is a beautiful place to conduct a science experiment.

You getting allergies?

...Driven completely normally with no hypermiling

Until their three gallons of gas ran out.

We're running out. We're running out.

Well, that's it. All right.

I think that's it, buster. we are out.

Whoo. All right. That's it for the control test.

We went 64 miles and got 21.3 miles per gallon.

So, buster and I made it 78 miles

On three gallons of gas.

That is 26 miles per gallon.

That was the control,

And they'll need to double those figures

To confirm this myth.

So, it's back to today's hypermiling test,

And in the midst of city traffic...

oh, shoot.

You really got to pay attention when you're hypermiling,

Otherwise, you're gonna off a lot of drivers.

...Fuel frugality is frustrating.

This is it. We are coast city.

But it's doesn't matter,

Because all this stinkin' traffic

Is stopping and ruining my coasting abilities.

Shh! Shh! Shh! Calming. Calming. Calming.

maybe I should drive home.

Engine off.

However, soon, they're through the stress of the city,

And the motors are still running as they head out on the highway.

Oh! Is that us causing all that traffic?

Oops.

She just gave me the bird.

Yeah, you hate us. You hate science?

What? You don't like science?

But while their disciplined driving

Has other drivers road-raging,

They are making savings.

We are at -- let's see, our mileage is 31.315.

Okay, so that is 12 miles past our mark.

Really?! Yeah.

Wow! So we got 52 to go.

Okay. Whether it's confirmed or not,

I'm sort of impressed already.

At the 80-mile mark,

They've reached the scenic route

And topped their control mileage.

This is the first time that we're seeing

Really windy roads on this course.

Now the technique here

Is to maintain a consistent speed

So that you don't have to actually brake in the turns.

Because if you're braking, you're losing energy.

But now that there's some downhill,

I'm gonna just try to coast through these turns

At a safe speed.

hang on, buster.

You know, hypermiling is a commitment.

It's a way of life.

it's scary!

Or possibly a way of death, too.

Aah!

I'm starting to get it, hypermilers -- I'm getting it.

I understand you people now. I didn't think I understood you.

Now I get it.

Kari's got the fuel savings fever...

You might see actual tears if we don't make this.

...And energy to burn. Aah!

The only problem is the engine doesn't.

Uh-oh.

Because despite Kari's deft driving...

That's it.

...They're running on empty.

That's it. No brakes.

Well, we definitely did not double our mileage.

I was getting so optimistic.

It was looking so good.

Yeah, we didn't even come close to doubling our mileage.

We went 64 the first time on our control,

And we only got to 90 this time.

That's only 40%.

Yep. 40% is a long way from 100%.

However, this myth and Tory are still on the road.

I just hit 136 on my odometer,

Which means 20 more miles, and this myth is confirmed!

This is insane!

Am I the only one excited about this?!

Yeah, I guess so.

However, Tory might have spoken too soon.

Ooh. I'm running out of gas.

I was so close!

Aah!

I was so close.

I was just saying how I was at 136 miles.

All I needed was 20 more miles,

And we were gonna confirm this myth.

And as soon as I finished saying that, the engine shut off.

I think we have to bust this one.

I mean, it did give us a lot more mileage,

But it's not doubling our mileage.

So this one's looking busted.

Tory managed an impressive 70% increase,

While Kari and Grant scored 40%.

So, even though the myth's busted,

It's still fuel for thought.

I started out with pure skepticism,

Thinking that hypermiling was just a whackadoo theory

To starting to believe it, to starting to get into it,

To starting to work the system and feel the gain,

To getting really emotionally excited about the fact

That we hit a hill or a turn

So I could save that little bit of fuel,

Just a few drops that were gonna get us that extra mileage.

And though we did not double our mileage,

40% is nothing to laugh at.

Welcome back.

We've been testing the sTory

That if you're in the back seat of a car

That gets t-boned by a truck like this one,

You're better off being sandwiched

Between two big dudes.

So, to test this, we did a control

In which we put our crash test dummy

In the back seat

With nothing around him,

And we hit him with this very truck.

Wow!

Things didn't fare so well for him.

He died.

This patient is very, very dead.

Now we're gonna sit him in the back seat of a new car

Between two big dudes,

And we're gonna hit them with this truck again.

Yep. With two portly passengers,

This is gonna be one super-sized finale.

Are you ready? We're all ready.

Excellent.

Like the control, a brand-new syndaver takes a back seat.

Come on, buddy.

We'll get him in here if it's the last thing he ever does.

Oh, wait. It is the last thing he ever does.

And once he's sitting pretty in the middle...

Excellent.

...It's time to call the cops.

Remember, right now their chubby creations...

Time for your accident, little buddy.

...Are lightweights,

Tipping the scales at a mere 12 pounds each.

That's it! I got it!

But all that's about to change.

All right, buddy. Let's get you up to weight.

To get our cops

To the required mass and consistency

Of an obese person,

We're simply gonna fill them up with water.

Oh, it's working beautifully.

One gallon -- that's eight pounds.

We've got a bunch to go.

Now, based on their overall volume,

Each guy will weigh about 350 pounds when they're full.

They're starting to get denser.

Which is right in the ballpark we need.

All right. Dude is full of water and up to weight.

Now it's up to jamie.

And once mr. White's also piled on the pounds...

That's a big dude.

...Cop number two, like the experiment, is good to go.

I don't think there's any question here

If the prisoner's gonna do better

With these guys around him

Than he would by himself.

He will. Padding is good. It works.

That's why they put airbags in cars.

The only real question here

Is whether he will actually survive.

Is the padding enough to do that?

I really don't know.

Time to suit up.

Although this time Adam's behind the wheel,

For this full-figured finale, everything else is the same...

Let's do this.

...The same car with the same truck going the same speed.

The only difference? Those plus-sized passengers.

Okay, Adam. Are you ready?

Ready.

All right. On my mark --

3, 2, 1...Go.

Okay.

37 miles per hour.

45.

48.

You're at 50.

Hold it at 50.

Hold it right there.

All right. Here we go!

Aah!

Wow!

Oh, my gosh!

That's just...Awful.

Whoo!

And yet, it's kind of cool.

Whoa, boy!

My sphincter tightened!

Whew.

Are you okay?

Wow, what a concussion!

Boom!

I think I screamed for the last 30 feet.

I just went "aah!"

Aah!

Boom!

Better than a cup of coffee, isn't it?

Wow.

That was a rush.

It may have been a rush for Adam,

But it was savage for the car.

we have teeth on the syndaver.

that is awful.

he's smiling.

He liked it.

And if this hit looks bad from the outside...

Eww.

...Inside the car, it's a disaster.

His head came off.

well, his head's come off.

That's not a good sign.

No, I mean, his head's, like, come clean off.

It's like, no' attached to his body.

Well, that means we don't need no data.

still, we might as well.

Remember, jamie thought buster might survive

Courtesy of his portly pals.

Oh, you don't look so good.

Yet, given his decapitation, that's not looking likely.

look. Yeah, I know.

But what do the doctors say?

So, doc, his head fell off, but what else is wrong with him?

In addition to his complete dislocation of his head...

...He sustained massive injuries

To his chest, abdomen, pelvis, all of his extremities.

These are devastating.

Our first dummy was certainly dead,

But this one's even more dead.

Well, that's not at all what we expected,

But that's pretty definitive.

It may be, but were the g-loads on buffered buster

Lower this time around?

All right, david. What is the news?

What does the data tell us?

Well, we maxed out our sensors.

We -- what -- wait a minute.

We had, like, 500 and 600-g crashes last time,

But what was our max?

More than 800 g's.

Wow! And we don't know how much worse.

It's just above 800 g's?

That's correct. Okay.

Thank you, sir.

Whew.

So, with the g's maxing out

At eight times the survivable limit,

There's only one conclusion to make.

So, let's recap.

In the first crash,

Our perp was seated alone in the back seat,

And on impact, withstood 500 to 600 g's of force,

A completely deadly amount of g's.

In the second crash, seated between two big cops,

This being one of them,

He withstood well over 800, and that was totally counter

To what both jamie and I predicted.

The second crash was far worse.

Ain't that the truth?

The two corpulent cops didn't shield the suspect,

They killed him.

And jamie's figured out why.

Earlier, I thought any padding would be good padding

And that our dummy would be better off

Between the two big guys,

But it turns out I was wrong.

Water doesn't compress, and we're mostly water.

So, it was actually

Like our dummy was between a rock and a hard place.

How do you want to call this one?

Well, it was totally not what we expected.

You'd be much worse off in the back of a car

Between two big guys

Than to not have them there in the first place.

The myth is busted.

Copy that. It's totally busted.

Let's get out of here.

Whoa.

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