Petrol engines made better

Mayflower Corporation claims to have discovered a way to improve engine efficiency by 40 per cent and cut emissions by 50 per cent.

The company is so confident of the strength of its invention that is predicting all new internal combustion engines will include their technology within five years.

Known as e3 the technology is essentially a hinged joint in the piston shaft.

This allows engine management systems to change the compression of the engine by altering how far the piston travels up the cylinder. If you need to accelerate the stroke gets longer and the capacity increases. Once you have reached a fast enough speed the stroke can be shortened and capacity reduced cutting petrol consumption.

The hinge also improves the way the piston travels up and down the cylinder - it pauses briefly at the top of the cycle improving ignition.

A spokeswoman for the company claimed it is in discussions with various manufacturers to include the technology in new cars. But it could also be applied to existing cars.

For more information see: http://www.mayflower-e3.com