Idea for a 40+ mpg SVX....

[Chiketkd]

So I was reading a bunch of old magazine reviews on the SVX, and noticed something interesting in the September '91 Automobile Mag review of the car:

"At full throttle, the flat-six revs right to the solid red at 7000rpm before shifting up, and although first-to-second and second-to-third shifts are smoothed by a shift-energy strategy that cuts fuel to three cylinders momentarily, the next ratio hooks up pretty quickly."

Sept '91 Automobile Mag Review

Personally, I'm not that concerned with fuel economy (I started thinking of ideas after svx_commuter's famous thread), but that shift-energy strategy gave me an idea - displacement on demand!

Since some members have been able to splice switches for locked 4wd, 50/50 awd and fwd modes, wouldn't it be possible to splice a switch for the wire that'll run from the TCU to ECU engaging this 'shift-energy strategy'?

Now, this wouldn't be a switch to engage when moving the SVX off from a dead stop, but whilst cruising on the highway in 4th, when the switch is flipped and 3 cyclinders are shut down, it should allow fuel economy to increase significantly...

I know several manufacturers like Chrysler, Mercedes Benz, VW, etc. all have displacement on demand technology that's starting to trickle into some of their production cars. Wouldn't it be cool to use the technology Subaru developed for the SVX some 15yrs ago that will be still cutting edge today?

Just a brain-storming idea I felt like sharing...

-Chike