Car-spotting thread

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
I don't believe that battery operated cars are the long-term future (if humans are around that long), just the current fad. Quite honestly, some type of hybrid propulsion technology would be much more efficient and not have the space and infrastructure problems of going all electric. Locomotives have been doing it for the last 60 years or so. Just need to wait and see what the next big revolution in propulsion will be, but I'm betting it won't be batteries.

compressed air?
the natural gas model is interesting, other than the BOOM effect.
and again, what happened to fuel cells? plug power was doing so well in the 90s(? early 2k).

i like the train generator/motor solution - using it in the car with batteries means the engine can be small as it needs to supply an average amount
of energy, rather than a peak amount, which could be drawn from the batteries.


....

eventually there will be a time where all cars are electric, parking meters will feature a charging cable and cars will be chipped and linked to your CC (similar to ezpass) so when you park you plug in, they charge your account for the energy you add to your battery, and for any parking fees associated with it (could even be as simple as an NFC chip to do this part, so there is no cheating on paying for your parking by only charging if needed). but again, thats a MASSIVE infrastructure change and will not happen quicly.

it is much closer than you think - both electric and fossil. car will talk to the pump, know your preferences, and start pumping. electric is easy.
and it will actually be integrated with ezpass functionality too. Also work trips will be submitted for reimbursement (or payment) directly.
since satellite radio is saturated, they are spending their money in this space - they have a universal downlink (almost) - which is why others are hurrying to put up more satellites.
it is all very interesting.
 

rick81721

Lothar
Forgot to mention, I got buzzed by an M3 with modded exhaust on the bike this morning. Love the sound of your car bro, but that was a dick move. Almost jumped out of my skin ?
 

GSTim

Formerly M3Tim
...i like the train generator/motor solution - using it in the car with batteries means the engine can be small as it needs to supply an average amount
of energy, rather than a peak amount, which could be drawn from the batteries.

Isn't this what the Volt was, that they just killed? :mad:
 

Santapez

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Isn't this what the Volt was, that they just killed? :mad:

Isn't that basically what a plug-in Prius is? Prius Prime gets 25miles on the battery charge (would be fine for my normal commute) but can get 640miles total with the gas engine. And it's 27k which is way less than a Volt or Bolt. And made by a company that's known for making high quality hybrid cars for years.
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
Isn't this what the Volt was, that they just killed? :mad:

yes -

i would look for them to come out with something resembling an equinox or whatever they call the smaller one. caddy xt4 ish
 

Monkey Soup

Angry Wanker
compressed air?
the natural gas model is interesting, other than the BOOM effect.
and again, what happened to fuel cells? plug power was doing so well in the 90s(? early 2k).

i like the train generator/motor solution - using it in the car with batteries means the engine can be small as it needs to supply an average amount
of energy, rather than a peak amount, which could be drawn from the batteries.

Cars and Taxi's have been running on LPG in Europe since the late 80's. I had a friend there who had a company car (Renault Cleo), that ran on LPG. He was a huge F1 fan, and drove that car like he stole it, every day. No boom. The tank in the trunk at the time looked a lot like the what you have running your outdoor grill. I think the only issue with LPG is engine wear since its a dry gas, but all of the cars at the time were converted gasoline motors, and the conversion was very easy.

Problem with fuel cells and H2 is that the process to derive the fuel is more energy intensive than what you get out, which kind of defeats the purpose. Maybe someday it will be efficient, but its not cool and an in-vogue right now to throw money at anything but EV's, although you can bet your 401k that Big Oil is aggressively looking at alternative energy, they have been since the 80's.
 

rick81721

Lothar
Still this electric/alternate fuels nonsense? Today's drive I spotted what I thought was the first GT350 of 2019 "in the wild " i.e. not at a car show. Then it turns into the Ford dealer where my motor got replaced. My neighbor mentioned they are selling a used oxford white with blue stripes, this was it. But twenty minutes later, about 8 miles south of the dealer, I pull into a Gulf station to gas up. There's the GT350 again, with a dealer plate. The guy pulls out of the gas station (heading away from the dealer) and drops the hammer. Methinks these guys are beating the piss out of that car.
 

shrpshtr325

Infinite Source of Sarcasm
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Still this electric/alternate fuels nonsense? Today's drive I spotted what I thought was the first GT350 of 2019 "in the wild " i.e. not at a car show. Then it turns into the Ford dealer where my motor got replaced. My neighbor mentioned they are selling a used oxford white with blue stripes, this was it. But twenty minutes later, about 8 miles south of the dealer, I pull into a Gulf station to gas up. There's the GT350 again, with a dealer plate. The guy pulls out of the gas station (heading away from the dealer) and drops the hammer. Methinks these guys are beating the piss out of that car.


yes im sure they are. everyone wants to give it a go.
 

serviceguy

Well-Known Member
My dad had is 1.6l Opel Kadet converted to natural gas in the early 2000s, it was a pig but he made 200 mile with a bunch of change, literally. The conversion was switchable back to gas from the cockpit, it's been done forever. it was considered eco-friendly but it's now considered responsible for some other kind of nastier pollution that I can't translate in english right now.

As far as all the clever ideas that @fidodie mentioned, they're all pretty much feasible already from a technological point of view , it's just that there's no big enough consumer base for them or in some cases (i.e. fuel cell) they couldn't bring the bright idea to full circle, as in provide a safe and profitable way to create and distribute hydrogen for car propulsion that wouldn't go boom...at least that's my take on it, for what it's worth.
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
Weren't they looking at lng as the hydrogen source? where the result was water, Co2, and electricity.

I was driving propane fork lifts 40+ years ago in a closed space. That explains a lot.
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
:shrug: how much energy would that require though? :shrug:

Thought it was a function of using graphene sheets, and the natural escape of h through them. The guys at plug were just a bit younger than me at college, so I was tracking them early on.

It probably needed a feedback loop and couldn't overcome the Penalty
 

JerseyPete

Well-Known Member

JerseyPete

Well-Known Member
My parents have a propane Generac that cycles once a week and has been dead reliable for the last 10 years. I have a regular gas standby that I can plug right into my service with a breaker. I'm with you on the diesel though, especially it it has a tank with enough capacity to run your whole house for a week.
With engines that cycle like that, is there a risk of scoring the cylinders? Liquid fuels like diesel and gasoline give some lubrication to the combustion chamber, what happens in NG or LP motors?
 
Top Bottom