Quote:
Originally Posted by fastball
If we could drill for whatever oil was available wherever and whenever, the supply could last generations, even at the feverish pace we consume it. Yes, it would eventually run out, but long after my great great great grandkids have kicked the bucket.
The IC engine is just about as perfect a power supply for cars as it is an imperfect demonstration of efficiency. The sound, performance, ease of maintenance, cost effectiveness, and relative reliability of it far outweigh the fact that it is inefficient and polutenous. Some companies take them to an art form - could you imagine a day when Ferraris no longer have that beautifully crafted intake manifold on the top of a sweet sounding and just about as perfect performing 48 valve 12 cylinder engine?
Blasphemy.
What are they gonna do? Paint the prancing horse on the top of plain flat battery pack?
Look at the anticipation of the engine choices for our Camaro, just on this forum alone. Who sits and dreams about lithium ions and 230 killowatt generators? 
You kill the IC engine, and the interrest in cars for people like us is lost completely. I mean, I would purposfully go out and find the biggest gas hog I could find - maybe a '72 Cadillac Fleetwood, or a Chevy Suburban 4X4 with the 454.
I've said this before, and I'll say it again: I would just love to buy my V8 Camaro 6 speed stick, drive it out to Washington DC, and just wait for Nancy Pellosi to walk out of the Capitol building. Then I would drive around in circles just drifting the hell out of the car to get as much smoke and gas as I could, and then yell out the window "Here's to your CAFE - stick it in your pipe and smoke it!" |
Your great great great great great grand kids might be enthused by that 230kw generator or lithium ion battery (notice the more greats). And at that point the way you would upgrade your car will be with a circuit board.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dragoneye
but...apparently I'm an oddity in that when I see 230kw, and I know that's somewhere north of 300hp. Then I think of the massive, instant torque......Geeze, I dunno. I do see where you're coming from, now. But whereas you don't like the idea of electrification of automobiles, I guess I do. |
Just a tidbit of information dragon- electric engines but any v8- minus top fuel drags to shame in the torque competition and availability.
http://www.businessweek.com/autos/co...age_autos+lede
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/12...-can-be-yours/
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Some might mention the fact that these cars are expensive. Two notes on that:
some are prototypes-just like the $2 million concept Camaro....
And most (if not all of it) is new technology...This stuff will get cheaper over time and likely in the next couple decades, so like everything else it will get cheaper ala- computers