PICKING UP THE PACE\Motorists driving gas-guzzler autos despite fears over pollution,\oil shock.

Byline: Agis Salpukas The New York Times

Gas guzzling is back.

Americans are driving bigger cars and trucks longer distances and at higher speeds - ignoring warnings about increased pollution or another oil shock.

And why not? Gas costs less, in inflation-adjusted terms, than at any time since the 1950s, the golden era of gas guzzling, when metallic monsters with fins spewed noxious fumes and got 10 miles to the gallon in city traffic.

Today, gas is so cheap that Mary McIntosh never looks at the price signs when she goes to fill up the 40-gallon tank of her hulking Chevrolet Suburban sport utility vehicle. She just pulls the truck, which seats nine people, into the first Mobil station she sees - because she has a Mobil credit card.

"I zip it through and that's it," she said in her living room here as her husband, David, who drives his own Suburban, nodded in approval. The convenience is well worth the few dollars the couple might save from their $200 monthly gasoline bill if they shopped around, she added.

With price such a small consideration, the McIntoshes have no reason to drive slowly. In fact, now that nearly every state has lifted the 55-mph speed limit on major rural highways, they - like most Americans - are going faster.

The McIntoshes say they sometimes exceed 70 mph on the weekend skiing trips they take with their four children to Stowe, Vt., 200 miles away. And on some roads that would mean driving in the slow lane. New York state police say the average ticketed speed rose from 73 mph in 1994 to 76 mph last year.

Energy specialists say the McIntoshes' driving habits are typical these days. With memories of the oil shocks of the 1970s fading, the oil cartel apparently broken and prices generally stable over the last decade, they say, motorists have little incentive to conserve energy. Indeed, the gas mileage of their Suburbans, like most of the popular sport utility vehicles, is not much better than the monster gas guzzlers of old.

As a result, gasoline consumption is increasing at an accelerating pace, according to the American Petroleum Institute. After declining slightly from 1989 through 1991, it rose by 1.1 percent in 1992, 1.4 percent in 1993 and 1.7 percent in 1994 before shooting up 2.5 percent last year. Consumption was 327.2 million gallons a day in 1995, up from 319.2 million gallons in 1994.

The industry trade group attributed last year's jump partly to the introduction of reformulated gasoline, which delivers somewhat lower mileage. Actual highway travel rose at a slightly lower pace last year than in 1994 - 2 percent vs. 2.5 percent.

Analysts believe consumption will continue to rise, perhaps at an accelerating rate.