Electric Hybrid is not what it is cracked up to be. It does nothing
for you on the autobahn or the free way. In a passenger car the
depreciation is excessive as batteries wear out and fail. It is too
complicated.
They should take it out of F1 cars and switch to mechanical turbo
compound. Mechanical turbo compound is 15 to 20% more efficient than
electric turbo compound anyway.
Mercedes won with Ferrari 3rd. Honda completed the race which was
amazing given limited testing on such a complicated car.
Paul Lamar
John Dinkel wrote: Paul, BUT . . . F1 cars are what they are cracked
up to be: Wrecks! jd
A Toyota Prius will get more MPG on the free way if you take the
battery out. Half the drag at 50 to 60 MPH is tire rolling
resistance. Less weight... lower rolling resistance. More MPG.
Paul Lamar
Paul --
I like the idea of a Prius highway fuel-economy test (or more
"real-world" fuel-economy test) with the battery removed. Should be
fairly simple to do. All you really need are a couple of
identical-model Priuses in equal condition. I wonder how much work
would be involved to make the Prius run without the battery in the
system.
As a preliminary you could just load one down with an appropriate
amount of lead weights to sort of simulate the proof-of-concept. That
could be done with a couple of rental cars and a whole bunch of those
lead-weight bags the movie crews use to hold down the light stands.
(I know this stuff because I used to be in the Screen Actors Guild.
No lie.)
By the way. What is this F1 I see people talking about? Is that some
sort of racing thingie? Seems to me I used to watch and even care a
little about something called Formula One, but that was ages ago,
back when cars were cars and men were men and drivers raced cars
against other drivers and cars. They were actual cars. You know; a
driver could climb into the thing and start it up and drive it in a
race. But all that went away. What is this F1 stuff?
I know this about this F1 whizzledoodle: It ain't nuthin' I give a
shit about.
Don Fuller
You would want to do it for more than the range on just the battery.
The taxi cab companies are buying up cheap prius's in LA with dead
batteries.
They have learned how to detect the single cell that is giving
problems and changing out just that cell. The problem is if one cell
is bad on an old battery another cell will not be far behind.
If I had one with a dead battery (perish the thought) I would take
out the battery and sell it to a cab company for spares and run it
with out the battery.
The acceleration would also be improved over the discharged battery
circumstance.
I recently tested a Chevy Volt. Running at 80 MPH on the free way it
loses one mile of battery range for every mile driven. It starts
with only 30 mile range on the battery. Then it takes over eight
hours to recharge the battery. It weighs about 4000 pounds with a 1.4
L ICE. When the battery is dead the acceleration is leisurely to say
the least.
Paul Lamar
I think we're agreeing that, absent big government subsidies (who
else but the government will provide subsidies?) these things do not
make economic sense. I once got into a long and tedious discussion
with a tedious electric-car advocate. He was driving a Nissan Leaf
and was very, very proud of himself. He said he drove on the LA
freeways at the lowest possible speed and drafted right up behind
18-wheelers in order to gain range. He also knew all the places he
could recharge it for free, such as the local grocery store, where he
would spend a long time on his grocery list. He had also taken
advantage of every subsidy known to civilization, including all the
bennies at time of purchase and whatever he got from the system in
the form of rebates for installing solar panels on his home.
As he explained (actually, as I figured out) he was a master at
lining up for every freeloader deal on the planet. As much as
possible, he was living off the system or, more correctly, he was
living off of us. So we were all paying for his magnificence and, in
the bargain, having to put up with his decidedly dangerous behaviour
behind the wheel by him either drafting 18-wheelers or causing every
other motorist to dive around him just to miss running up his sorry
ass as he puttered along at somewhere around 45-50 mph on the 405..
But he was mighty, mighty proud of himself. I had to give him that.
Hugs and kisses, and it's always a pleasure.
Don Fuller
He was probably doing that in the left hand lane on top of that too.
Mark LaPierre
I see this guy all the time! Harold Lunt
I sure would like to see some folks follow up on the late MIT Professor,
Bruce DePalma's work using Michael Fariday's concept of homopolar
generation. Bruce built a unit he called an N machine. Snake oil maybe.
He claimed over unity with it. 3:1.
Google it there are pictures and prints also youtube interviews with him
before he was killed.
Another overlooked new technology from waste heat: Thermoelectric power
generation modules
http://www.customthermoelectric.com/powergen.html?gclid=CPyP3Lr2jsQCFW0Q7AodRhQAng
Michael Nash
The Rotary Engine News Letter. Powered by Linux. ACRE NL web site.
http://www.rotaryeng.net You Tube
http://tinyurl.com/beqqxas
Copyright 1998-2015 All world wide rights reserved.