I hate paying so much at the pump but I am glad that the current gas shortage has stabbed a dagger into the heart of SUV sales. It also seems like every other day there is a news story about someone tinkering with their engines, or the battery array in their hybrids, to get more juice for the buck. Sometimes innovation still does take place in the trenches. Popular Science tells the story of Somender Singh and his relentless pursuit of perfection:
India is booming. The expanding population has overwhelmed the Bangalore-Mysore road the way a river floods its banks, and the flow of two-way traffic is choked with a living history of human transportation. There are belching herds of diesel trucks, diesel buses and iron-framed diesel tractors. There are wooden-wheeled carts pulled by brightly painted Brahma bulls, and two-stroke-motor rickshaws fueled by kerosene or cooking oil or whatever else is flammable and cheap. There are mopeds and bipeds and bicycles and motorcycles, and every conceivable type of petrol-powered, internally combusting automobile, from doddering Ambassador cabs to gleaming 16-valve Mercedes miracles. But there’s only one car like the one Somender Singh and I are riding in right now.That’s because Singh invented it. Or rather, reinvented a piece of it: a small detail on the engine that he calls “direct drive.” He claims that his invention makes an engine cleaner, quieter and colder than its internal-combustion cousins around the world–while using up to 20 percent less gas.
“Some people say to me, ‘Singh, why are you wasting your time on such a thing?'” he yells, his singsong Indian English barely piping above the tooting traffic. “But I tell you sir–I tell the world: I have conquered the internal combustion engine!”
To hear Singh tell it, his story has all the makings of a Bollywood movie, a classic heartwarmer about a small-fry Indian grease monkey who challenges the big boys armed only with a dream and a dirty wrench. And there’s no doubt that he has come up with something new, at least in the eyes of the U.S. Patent Office. But has a potbellied philosopher- mechanic from Mysore really discovered the efficiency El Dorado sought by every auto manufacturer, R&D center and thermal engineer from Detroit to Darmstadt?
Geez. Does every story out of India have the makings of a Bollywood movie? We could get 6-fingered Hritik Roshan to play Singh and the story can play up the fact that his extra finger allowed mechanical modifications not capable by lesser men. Still, Singh does lead the life that every engineer secretly dreams of. He is a fearless tinkerer who doesn’t accept that good ideas are only born in the R&D labs of large companies. The majority of the article actually focuses on his utter frustration in getting noticed. Heads of state, large automobile companies…nobody will listen to the man.
…Singh wrote letters–dozens upon dozens of letters, each accompanied by an 8 x 10 glossy of his spark plugs. He wrote to presidents Clinton and Bush, to no effect. He wrote to Tony Blair and got a nice thank-you form on 10 Downing Street stationery. (“The British are a different lot,” he says proudly. “They respond to a letter.”) He wrote to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam of India and received a series of letters and promises for follow-up, none of which bore fruit. He wrote to auto manufacturers from Dearborn to Pune, from Ford to Tata Motors. Tata, an Indian car company, expressed interest in the vague, noncommittal way that Singh had come to recognize as a mannered blow-off; Ford responded with a note wishing him “good luck,” which Singh didn’t much like, and the recommendation that he submit his “suggestion” through the company’s dedicated Web site (fordnewideas.com), which he liked even less.The scientists’ replies were more compact. He claimed to have conquered the internal combustion engine? Using poor fuel on engines of antiquated design, evaluated without scientific instruments and in third-world conditions? Had he tested the design for 500,000 miles, they wondered, as a proper R&D lab would? He hadn’t–none of his modified engines had done more than 65,000 road miles. Had he tested it on non-Indian vehicles or with the kinds of fuel used in the developed world? (He hadn’t.) Had he put it on a proper dynamometer, tested horsepower and torque? (No, but there’s a reason….) Could he send them an official printout from a five-gas analyzer indicating the oxides of nitrogen and carbon and the unburned hydrocarbons and total fuel economy? In a word, no.
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p>Slowly he was turning bitter, as all engineers that dream of fame, fortune, and beautiful women eventually do. 
Then Tata finally came calling 
:
And then one day, the phone rings. It’s Tata Motors. The $3.5-billion Indian auto manufacturer, which supplies automobiles to Rover UK, has received one of his letters. The Tata engineers have seen his patent and examined the photograph of his spark plugs. And they’re interested. If he’s willing to sign a five-year nondisclosure agreement, they’ll test his design further in their lab in Pune–on a proper dynamometer, with permission and everything.
Thats a nice one. Its hard to come by genuine research/new discoveries from India. I feel India severely lacks the sort of culture of research that is prevalent in the US.
Amen. Real driving enthusiasts have no desire for them, thanggod, else I’d have no one to
racedate.Excellent.
Eventually, if Tatas are willing to invest, then he is definitely on something. Scientists and engineers can be very clanish.
Oh I had read about this guy a sometime back when Outlook India magazine did a story on Indian invetors.
His piston modification idea did not have any takers at the time. I distinctly remember the story mentioning his frustrations.
Its great to hear that TATA has picked up his idea. Hurray !!! All the best from me to this guy !!!
Oi Thakur, there is an old Bollywood movie starring Rajesh Khanna as a “small-fry Indian grease monkey” who invents a new carburetor(?) for cars and goes on to make a whole lotta money based on it. I don’t recall the name, but the character had a disabled arm too! Bollywood’s got your story covered 😉
Damnit someone beat me to the rajesh khanna story. maybe he makes himself a sixth finger out of all the advanced mechanics he invents. Or he grows one because he’s been working with too much cesium. That’s something out of hollywood. Unless there’s singing and dancing involved.
Oil Shale in particular becomes profitable once crude oil rises above $35-40 a barrel and promises to stay there. Not a pretty substance, with double or more sulphur content than heavy crude oil. But no mining – you drop a heat source into a mineshaft, heat the shale where it is and pump it out. Some environmental problems still exist with the effect on the local aquifer and water requirements in production but manageable overall.
Thermal depolymerization, which processes animal and food production biproducts in a manner similar to crude oil (heat and pressurize, then depressurize at different rates), is super but will never have enough feed stock.
Wind is great for electricity and it seems to be passing solar on the in the race toward viability. A recent innovation has raised them higher, above the birds (simple, elegant solution). But not a gas tank solution.
I’m digressing. A favorite subject of mine.
great post abhi. I really hope TATA stands by their committment and does not back out. I’m all about giving everyone a chance. I hope he becomes ultra successful with his invention.
I have a seen a documentry by someone where Singh was featured. Very interesting and edearing fellow. I saw that docu about an year ago and the status of the tests with “TATA”s were just that, “waiting”. Hopefully this one is different.
ps: I liked his repeated use of the word “bugger” .
Please see his website http://www.somender-singh.com There are instructions there and some people in the US have taken these to the mechanic and had their own cars “Grooved” with success.
All of Somender’s claims have been substantiated.
No failures.
We’ve started testing and thus far all reports have been positive. Big power increases, improved driveability and better mileage. Hope to have dyno testing and emissions soon.
Cheers
Wat
http://fueleconomytips.com/ http://mpgresearch.com
At least thirty vehicles have been grooved by people other than Mr. singh Not a single complaint. On the contrary, many very prestigious and experienced engine race tuners in the US have clearly stated that the results are ‘unbelievable’ from just a simple modification.
The article in PopSci is misleading. Tata has not made good on their interest and no-other manufacturer has entered into serious talks with Somender.
More publicity is needed to raise the stakes.
You can do this and /or have it done for a very reasonable cost.
Details are at the website http://www.somender-singh.com
There also you can see details of the other vehicles modified in the US, included is a GMC Suburban, 1995 I think, that went from 17 to 23 mpg and greatly increased towing capacity.
This alone should make it a huge success in the US.
Thanks you for posting this on the web.
RJ
Somender Singh is a man I feel proud to call my friend,though the two of us live a half a world apart,we share many common interests in the saving of the enviorment,our love of trying to improve what has been passed on to us by those who came before us,so that we may one day end our journey in life with a sense of satifaction that in some way,not matter how muchj,or how little we left the world a better place than we fouind it. Being a technician I know what an uphill battle it is for any idea we may come up with to be accepted by Engineers and scientists. We are never allowed to develope theories,but we are expected to be obediant slaves to the theories that only scientists have created as if every word of theory was gosipal. The same is even more so for mechanics. The moon lander vechicle trainer was flawed,several mechanics attempted to tell the engineers,but they would not listen,then one day it crashed,fortunately no one was killed. Somender Singh’s problem is his solution to improving combustion with a cylinder head is too simple,and he lacks a master’s degree, or doctorate in engineering. I he was a white coat wearing egg headed prima donna in one of those Ivory tower automotive R&D Labs he would be hailed with world wide reconigition. To say the high and mighty do not know what they are talking about,is like a mere mortal speaking out against God. RICHARD GLIMES
After digging deep into this and doing quite a bit of testing my vehicles will all be modified to have these grooves! If you wish to do the same contact Mike, at powrehaus.com
He has other mods that work with the grooves and the results are simply amazing.
A tight quench can add activity to a chamber but it is directed differently with different designed cylinder heads. The groove idea has the advantage of directing the activity in the most benificial way or direction. John Erb
If you think Grooves has real merit and should be in the production of new engines. Tell someone who is filling up their gas tank about Grooves and give them a business card with the http://www.somender-singh.com web site address. On the card remind them if they find the information they learn interesting,to pass you card to someone else. This way the little guy will wake up the world to what grooves has to offer. The price of their gas bill will make them listen better;.
I’ve used Somender Singh’s technique on an air cooled flathead gasoline engine. The engine is 40% more efficient. It works.
“Little Guys Unite!” If you have reaped rewards of good service from what was a worn out engine by using Somender Singh’s grooves,repay him for using his grooves invention free of charge by making up a hundred simple business cards which has his web site address. Hand some out each time you stop to buy some of that over priced gasoline.If 1000 of us Little Guys did that and 10% of those receiving one of those cards installed Grooves in their worn out engines,that would be 10,000″ True Believers” ready to spread the word to others who want lower cost driving who are sick of price games at the Gas Pumps. When the number of cars and trucks grows too large to be ignored,the the auto manufacturers will have to wake up to the need to clean up their act. Also a letter to your Congressman and Senator asking why should the automobile companies be able to turn their backs on inventions like Somenders Singh with a U.S.Patented invention when they are begging billions from the Tax payers of America to help them develope more mile to the gallon automobiles???? Do Nothing and let OPEC run your life and take whatever they want out of your pocket book for fuel. Richard Glimes