Baseball sometimes is referred to as a game of inches. Rising fuel prices are turning the automotive business into a similar battle over small increments. Already, General Motors Corp. appears to be winning sales with the 1- or 2-mpg advantage its new Chevy Tahoe/GMC Yukon enjoy over their closest rivals in the fullsize SUV segment. The competition likely will get even more intense going forward, and that is opening the door for numerous suppliers offering, not replacements for the internal combustion engine, but simply better mousetraps. One such device is a new "multi-function torque converter" for automatic transmissions developed by Germany-based LuK GmbH & Co. oHG. The new torque-converter design promises to improve fuel economy in the Environmental Protection Agency's city cycle by up to 6.9% simply by disengaging itself from the driveline during idle and going into "lockup" mode faster than a conventional torque converter during acceleration.
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