Ancient history. In those days, an electric car was even less feasible, and a hybrid was esentially impossible.
A decent modern car will run 100K miles with nothing but a few oil changes. For a very complex, very constrained mechanism, new cars are amazing, stunning works of art and engineering.
But why would anybody want a 76 Thunderbird, even in 1976?
John
A smallish plug-in hybrid is a sensible vehicle. One could use it as an electric for short trips, and run a small, efficient, fixed-speed gasoline engine when you do need to drive all day, or when the local electric grid is collapsing from a few million of your neighbors trying to charge their cars overnight, too.
There are tons of Smart Cars here lately. They make a lot of sense as a city car, with range for occasional trips. They don't suffer from the weight and size penalty of batteries and electric motors. A small car with a small gas engine is fine.
But not for long. In addition to depleting the batteries, a lot of electric motors can sustain peak output for a very short time before they overheat. That's great as an acceleration booster, not so good for cresting the Sierras.
We have a friend who has a new Toyota hybrid. Her gas mileage is horrible in San Francisco, from hauling a thousand pounds or so of batteries up and down hills.
The USA, especially the west, isn't like Europe or the east coast. It's big and full of mountains and stuff.
John
A modern gasoline-powered car creates very little pollutants... essentially zero particulates and low ppm levels of hydrocarbons and nitrous stuff, probably cleaner watt-for-watt than the average coal plant. Plus, the power is *THERE* where it's needed, right under the hood.
John
I am really tall, but with a short torso, so I really needed the leg room. It was $250 to purchase, another $350 to make roadworthy, and less than $700 a year for liability coverage.
As recently as 2000, when I had to dump it for something with four doors that my wife was willing to drive (and one of the rear coil springs was broken), the low cost of keeping it in good repair more than offset its profligate fuel consumption.
You do not understand ride-comfort; until you have driven a pug heavy vehicle with cushy suspension and a high ratio of sprung to unsprung weight-- the T-bird's wheels followed every imperfection in the road surface.
They are not for everyone, but anything that Montreal drivers will yield to is worth pots of gold to a non-montrealer driving in that city (mine was all black and chrome, so it looked like Darth Vader's car).
If I had more money than brains, I would buy another one in a heartbeat and either make a series hybrid out of it (the electric motor and small diesel using the space freed up by removing the 2 gallon V8), or put in an engine with a variable compression ratio. With a variable compression ratio and a variable boost (with turbocompounding), you can control power by controlling the displacement and run it at WOT, all of the time.
Mindless conspiracy theory. The main storage is pumped water and that hasnt been anything like 'systematically shut down'
ZerkonX wrote
That isnt being done.
But isnt economic where the grid is available without stupid subsidys.
Nope. Solar did where the grid isnt available. Pumped water for storage has been around for a lot longer than that.
Nope, its a mindless conspiracy theory.
Wrong again. The biggest solar projects are actually there. Quite a bit of pumped water storage too.
In other words, a beater.
Lovely. It probably also didn't go round corners very well. Euro cars fixed all these things decades ago.
(Sorry, had to be said).
Graham
engine
the same output?
generation.
If I provide a better source for those numbers than someones arse, will you apologize for your rudeness and general stupidity?
S.
Sevenhundred Elves wrote
engine
of the same output?
generation.
You obviously cant, or you would have.
Never ever could bullshit its way out of a wet paper bag.
That may happen ... if too many misunderstand energy saving with electricity saving and stop building power plants. I am convinced that energy saving starts from converting transportation from oil to electriticy and the result would be "less total energy consumption", but "more electricity demand" :-)
A Smart car save fuel. Surely. But you can save more fuel with and electric car.
Not "a lot of", but "any undersized" motor. And only if the power controller is bad designed. If you want a 100hp motor in needs to be a 73kW at 100% duty cycle, not a 50kW at nominal power with 75kW burst power (your acceleration booster ;-)
An ICE engine, has no battery to pull up the hills, but down hills it losses all the potential energy accumulated. An electric car, which has a bigger electric motor than the Prius and bigger batteries and power controlling capacity, could recover easily three fourths of that energy, while cruising down hill. An hybrid car has the electric part undersized to do a good job recovering energy.
I would say that USA has longer commuting distances as Europe, but don't talk about mountains and hills ... Austria, Switzerland, North Italy, South Germany. Imagine the Rocky Mountains from Main to Virginia ... ;-)
R.L.Deboni
By 1976, the Thunderbird was a bloated parody of the original roadster.
I occasionally rent an American car = never owned one = and I'm impressed by their feel and handling, even in radical situations like power sliding in the rain. Japanese cars used to have sloppy, mushy American handling, and they're much better now too.
I taught The Brat how to spin a (rented) SUV in the snow when she was
Wasn't the Austin Allegro the worst car of all time?
John
I LOVE that phrase.
Graham
Have you you had your brain examined recently ?
Graham
Actually, in its own right, the Austin Allegro wasn't a truly bad car except some very early models. The police bought them by the thousands.
OTOH it was a very boring car. I wouldn't have bought one.
When my g/f bought an MG Metro I could instantly see its development from the MG1300 of the previous generation and it was a scream to drive. VERY satisfying.
But nowhere near a Saab. You should try one if only just for fun. I've only ever been able to afford a 9000 (and they go for peanuts here these days). Try a 9-5 Aero ! Or a 9-3 SW.
Graham
RLDeboni wrote
Francisco.
grid is collapsing from a few million
saving and stop building power plants.
Nope, if that does happen, it will be airconditioning that does it, not car charging.
oil to electriticy
Wont happen much except for very short ranges if that.
That wont happen either.
And if that does happen, we'll just build more nukes.
car, with range for occasional trips.
motors. A small car with a small gas
car.
But dont get the range.
way. And we climbed some serious hills
motors can sustain peak output for a very
so good for cresting the Sierras.
And only in applications that only need short power bursts.
at nominal power with 75kW burst power
San Francisco, from hauling a thousand
all the potential energy accumulated. An
batteries and power controlling capacity,
An hybrid car has the electric part
But has to cart around a massive battery and move it up those hills.
and full of mountains and stuff.
South Germany. Imagine the Rocky Mountains
Eeyore wrote
Even those that hate me love my phrases and steal them too. Bit like a virus.
Further response. The Allegro was the successor of the Austin/Morris/MG
1100/1300.I drove an MG or Austin GT 1300 down to the 'west country' once when a friend kindly lent me one in return for a delivery job. I was totally converterted to FWD when handling it in the snow. It was so good. Passers by looked at us in astonishment as if to say how can you drive in this ?
Now try a Saab ! They *race* them in the snow !
Graham
media
Come on Graham, Daniel went to great length to shows you results of a list of studies on ALL kind of pollutants. Not just CO2. So why you pick out this one ?
Besides that, with different starting fuels (coal or nat gas->electric->EV versus gasoline->ICE) it is hard to talk about efficiency differences, but in absense of any other measure, CO2 emissions overall IS an indication of efficiency.
Rob
Well *I* didn't. You want SO2, NOx, CxHx, particulates or what. Might be best to state that first.
Every fuel leaves a different footprint. Concentrating on one alone in isolation is BERSERK !
Graham
Sevenhundred Elves wrote
engine
way.
generation.
Fuckwit still hasnt managed to work out what usenet is about.
Or that I didnt even say anything about your shit initially.
Translation: I couldnt actually find a cite for those stupid numbers.
library.
Never ever could bullshit its way out of a wet paper bag.
Lying, as always.
Never ever could bullshit its way out of a wet paper bag.
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