My kids were watching a DVD this weekend, and a segment of it on the Opel Eco Speedster caught my eye. The same segment is available on YouTube, so you can see it too. It is only 85 seconds long:

If you watch the clip, you will see several rather amazing claims:
- The car has a very small engine – a 1.3 liter, 112 HP diesel
- The car only weighs 1,455 pounds
- But the top speed is 155 MPH
- Most amazingly: in the 24 hour endurance race, its average speed was 140 MPH and the fuel economy was 113 MPG.

This article contains the same specs:

The Opel Eco Speedster Says: Diesels Can Rip and Sip at the Same Time

The Vauxhall VX220 and the Lotus Elise seem to be related, but neither get MPG ratings like that. See 2010 Lotus Elise and Exige get a bump in fuel-economy, reduction in CO2 – less than 50 MPG.

Did the video (and articles of the same vintage) contain a typo? What stopped the car, or something like it, from going into production? Given the popularity of the Tesla roadster, it seems like a 100+ MPG sports car would have a lot of appeal.

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