150MPG Sports Car

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

No, I've wanted some cool things though, like an 88 Suzuki Quadzilla, and stuff like that or if you are asking about older cars, i wouldn't mind having an AE86 (Tuerno)

Are ya sayin beetles aint cool or that you simply never wanted one?

 

If it's the former rather than the latter you clearly haven't had the opportunity to check out the aftermarket goodies available or the awsome modifications performed on them by diehard fanatics.

 

My mechanic has a '69 beetle fitted with a '77 2L. bus motor, two Holley quads, a hot cam, roller rockers and lifters, hemi cut heads, headers and a roll cage...yielding a 9.7 second average quarter....Not too shabby eh.

[alexander]

Simply that i have never wanted one, disturbd :wink:

 

My friend's friend has a 69 that pushes 165+dB, and will do a quarter mile, as fast as it takes 3 men to push it :hihi:

 

T, i know what you meant, just being funny back at ya, thats all...

[Zythryn]

The main drawback with the...Tesla... is that, like any present-day pure electric, after a couple of hundred miles, it’s recharge time. In the Tesla’s case, a recharge can be had from practically any electric outlet (provided you’ve got its “mobile charging station” in the trunk), but takes 3.5 hours from a 220 V source, longer from a 110 V. So, for long-distance travel, you’ve got about 50% driving to 50% recharging time :wink:

 

This is a very good point, for long distance travel a pure EV won't work so well. Since 10% of drivers drive more than 200 mile a day I don't see how EV makers will overcome only having 90% of the market to get customers from;)

 

The second Tesla model should be much more common at about half the price and a greater range. I'll be driving one of those:)

[alexander]

Z, telling you, nanophosphite lithium ion batteries.... look them up :wink:

 

All reality, i would like to see a car, with a solar panel roof, that uses those batteries and has a small motor running and tuned for e85 generating power...

 

P.S. if you have a motor that is tuned for e85 vs a motor that can run both regular gas and bio fuel, you get up to 20% more efficiency (in terms of power) out of the same-sized motor then you do from regular gas... Look at Koenigsegg and their CCXR model, same engine tuned for e85 gives about 200 more HP

[CraigD]

All reality, i would like to see a car, with a solar panel roof, that uses those batteries …

I came across this browsing for background for this thread: a US$ 4,500 aftermarket conversion to cover a Prius in solar panels. The maker claims it meets 17-29% of typical energy needs of the vehicle, for an equal improvement in observed fuel efficiency.

 

 

… and has a small motor running and tuned for e85 generating power...

I’m not sure Ethanol is a good energy alternative, as presently being developed in the US. As many have noted in hypography and the larger internet and academic and trade publication world, Ethanol appears (depending, in large part, who’s doing the analysis) to requires anywhere from 80 to over 100% as much fossil fuel energy to produce as it delivers. The real problem is that North American Ethanol crop stocks, primarily corn, are for various primarily market reasons locked into high-intensity agricultural production methods, and those methods use a lot of oil.

[alexander]

hey craig, so check it out, the $4,500 dollar addition to prius for sun roof + another $9500 addition for the nanophosphite battery suite.... you think we are pushing 150+MPG, average.... for some 15k more :wink: .... :hihi: gah why can't Toyota make this happen..... that's my question...?

[Jay-qu]

The main drawback with the Tesla (other than it being so rare and expensive that its not only unlikely that you or I will own one, but even that we’ll even know someone who does, and that pesky detail of not yet having a transmission that’ll actually give it the advertised 4 sec 0-60 time :wink:) is that, like any present-day pure electric, after a couple of hundred miles, it’s recharge time. In the Tesla’s case, a recharge can be had from practically any electric outlet (provided you’ve got its “mobile charging station” in the trunk), but takes 3.5 hours from a 220 V source, longer from a 110 V. So, for long-distance travel, you’ve got about 50% driving to 50% recharging time :hihi:

 

Sorry to be more off topic alex but this is a very interesting recent development in the area.

 

Toshiba announced the launch of a new type of battery - the SCiB (Super Charge ion-Battery)

 

The safety characteristics of SCiB allow recharge with a current as large as 50 amperes (A), allowing the SCiB Cell and SCiB Standard Module to recharge to 90% of full capacity in only five minutes, according to Toshiba.

...

Capacity loss after 3,000 cycles of rapid charge and discharge is less than 10%. SCiB is able to repeat the charge-discharge cycle over 5,000 times (more than 10 years with a once-a-day cycle). SCiB operates well in temperature extremes, with sufficient discharge at temperatures as low as -30°C.

 

Green Car Congress: Toshiba Launches New Li-Ion Battery Business; Plans to Enter Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Market

 

It will definitely be making a splash in the Hybrid/electric car industry soon :hihi: unfortunately the current models will be a bit unweilding for use with laptops and phones as 1 module weighs 2kgs :cup:

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

Simply that i have never wanted one, disturbd :)

 

My friend's friend has a 69 that pushes 165+dB, and will do a quarter mile, as fast as it takes 3 men to push it :)

 

T, i know what you meant, just being funny back at ya, thats all...

 

:hihi: Okey schmokey:hihi:

 

Incidently the Golf TDI engine (after fitment of the Vanagon diesel sump and oil pickup) is a direct bolt on goody! 110 Hp. 149lbft torque 45 mpg in the Golf...likley better in the more streamlined much lighter old Beetle. A few louvres in the hood your good to go.

[CraigD]

hey craig, so check it out, the $4,500 dollar addition to prius for sun roof + another $9500 addition for the nanophosphite battery suite.... you think we are pushing 150+MPG, average.... for some 15k more :hihi:

If your trip is short enough, and your parking place sunny enough, a solar-electric car of any kind can have effectively infinite MPGs - use nothing but solar energy.

 

However, there're pretty severe fundamental limitations on solar cars. The Earth gets just 680 W/m^2 of solar input, and a car has at best 10 m^2 of surface area (much bigger and it becomes hard to fit on a road, not to mention massive), so even with perfect efficiency, storage, and weather (the latter of which is rare in much of the car-using world, and hard to do anything about), you're not going to get much more than 6000 W of solar (real-world technology would be doing well to get more than a few hundred). Mobility and large surface area don't go very well together.

 

Better, I think, to get your solar (or wind, or tidal, or any other non-fossil fuel energy) through the power grid, and just plug your vehicle into it to charge. With some rare, specialized exceptions (eg: utility vehicles for naturalists working far from civilization) solar vehicles are, IMHO, mostly an exercise in engineering and eco-friendly showing off, akin to carrying all your essential belongings on your back just to show you can.

.... :) gah why can't Toyota make this happen..... that's my question...?

'Cause Toyota is, like any other huge company, primarily in the business of making a lot of money, not benefiting mankind and nature? As I see it, Toyota has just better read their market, and realized that lots of people are willing to pay for a very-efficient vehicle like the Prius. For several years, Toyota America spokespeople have been hinting that any year now, they'd be selling a factory-built plug-in version of the Prius at no or a modest extra cost, presumably using the stock 6.4 MJ NiMH battery pack. My hope and guess is that they really will, ca. 2010. 'Till then, there are quite a few aftermarked companies doing hybrid-to-PIH conversions, but IMHO none of them are doing it as well as Toyota could, all of them either adding 100+ kg of batteries or a completely separate battery system costing over half the new purchase price of the car. Not elegant.

 

When that happens, or another company beats Toyota to market with a PIH, I'll buy it. IMHO, this is the important, mainstream path toward viable alternate auto energy. Better batteries will appear as improvements in manufacturing bring their price down, and other tech improvements as they occur, but right now, I think the technology to allow nearly fuel-free use 90% and as-convenient-as-conventional-car use the remaining 10% is technically doable.

 

This aligns world power schemes to deliver electricity to the power grid using non-fossil fuels. Though it would be nice if this could be solar, wind, tidal, etc., I think the reality is that the only major power source that can, in any reasonable (ie: 10 year) time frame, replace a substantial portion of the fossil fuel share of electric power generation, is nuclear fission. Hopefully, this will provide a few decades of “bridge” until various large-scale solar systems can be designed and implemented.

[alexander]

Well, from what i have read, they are trying to make their next prius model a PIH (for 2009), which certainly has benefits. I agree with your comment, and i disagree with it at the same time. while conversion systems usually add batteries, and weight, i disagree on the part that toyota can make it more "elegant". For example a Hymotion pack, yes it adds batteries (nanophosphate battery pack that weighs less then the NiMh pack that's in the car). While it adds weight, and takes 4 hours to install, at $9500, the company claims it gives you up to 150mpg, depending on traveling conditions and all... I don't find that to be not elegant, while it takes a little space in the trunk, it's clearly space well used...