Recent Comments:
Lotus develops integrated exhaust manifold {Autoblog}
Mar 15th 2007 9:07AM The American Motors Rambler 195.6 cubic inch displacement sixes had this feature from 1939 through 1965 when the engines were finally discontinued.
Nothing new under the sun?
The engines were even available with an aluminum block (with iron cylinder liners) from about 1958 through 1965, $30 extra cost. This lightened up the front of the car so that nobody except an 85 pound granny might need power steering.
Columnist says Texas oilman may have killed Caddy V16 engine {Autoblog Green}
Mar 13th 2007 10:09AM General Motors owns Daewoo. Daewoo build an 850cc four cylinder engine for the little Matiz city car.
Use the pistons, rods, valves, parts and build a nice 45 degree V16 of 3.4 liters. Add displacement on demand, use the Miller cycle with two interconnected belt driven supercharger-turbochargers (intercooled) (obviously with a clutch on the one side of the engine which shuts-down leaving a straight-eight when 16 cylinders are not needed).
Build the car of aluminum. Use a hydraulic hybrid system instead of transmission. (A nice big luxury car would have room for the hydraulic pressure tanks).
That'd get 25 mpg in the city. Probably EPA 30 mpg on the highway, depending upon mass and frontal area.
It'd be as smooth as glass, running, as well.
That just came out of my head, so if I can think of it, maybe the brainiacs with engineering degrees at GM need a slap on all four cheeks to get the blood flowing a little.
And then send me car #1 as thanks for the idea.
New European CO2 standards may force Porsche production out of the EU {Autoblog Green}
Mar 6th 2007 1:20PM I think Porsche would be essentially saying "OK you don't want us to produce these vehicles, yet we wish to produce them for other countries - we might as well build them where they are being sold - and screw you and the jobs here in Europe" - yep - it would be a means of saying "we don't have to play - we can take our ball and go home to some other place".
Hey, Porsche? Northwestern Michigan has a beautiful scenery, good "Porsche" roads (the PCA comes up here all the time) and due to "Detroit Inc" we have high unemployement and a lot of savvy guys and gals willing and able to work for a wage significantly UNDER what you pay the minions in Germany, so HOW ABOUT IT?
Porsche Manufacturing LLC, Traverse City, Michigan?
House subcommittee hearing raises possibility of forcing automakers to allow larger doses of ethanol {Autoblog Green}
Feb 21st 2007 3:38PM Right now, my wife's 2002 Sonata obtains 20% LESS miles per gallon on E10 (10% ethanol).
So why can't we RECALL and get rid of these idiots in Washington?!
My 2005 Prius obtains about 7% less MPG on E10, but if you consider the oil that goes into the production of ethanol, it is a total waste of time, as well.
We need new politicians, and less ethanol in cars. Otherwise we're going to have higher food prices, and higher fuel prices, and no decrease in oil imports whatsoever.
Silent hybrid and electric vehicles should always make a noticeable sound, says National Federation of the Blind {Autoblog Green}
Feb 14th 2007 8:30AM Kert, your idea could "work the other way" so that a blind person could wear a small device which sends out a signal, and all modern quiet cars could have a receiver (perhaps the same type of tech already in place for the remote control locks, but obviously using a specific code or frequency). Then the condenser fan would come on appropriately only when NEEDED, cutting down on noise pollution when not necessary and reducing the energy loss. I think the system would also be very cost-effective. But there would have to be a single, world-wide "system" so that any blind person on vacation would have their emitter work and any cars would receive the signal anywhere the blind were walking. The added cost to the cars would be absolutely minimal, largely software with a hardware or software link between two systems already in place. Well, what do the rest of you readers think?
Silent hybrid and electric vehicles should always make a noticeable sound, says National Federation of the Blind {Autoblog Green}
Feb 14th 2007 8:23AM The solution is simple, inexpensive and at hand. It also will obviously apply to fuel-cell vehicles and pure electric vehicles.
Virtually all cars have an air conditioning system with condenser and fan. Simply program the fan to run at all times at the appropriately low speeds, as a noise-generator. No additional expense needed, no extra cost needed. Just a software change.
Yeah, it'll use up a little bit of energy, but for a good cause (the safety of some fellow human beings). If I thought that even a majority of humanity had any *(&*%* common sense, I'd say "put a switch on the car" but most people don't think or care, so it'd have to be automatic.
Believe me, the condenser fan in my Prius is loud enough to do the job, thought I can't hear it inside the car you certainly can outside the car.
It takes Martin Winterkorn almost no time in charge to put a hold on hybrid VWs {Autoblog Green}
Feb 8th 2007 8:27AM VW just signed it's own death warrant.
In 5 years, no matter where on earth you market cars, if you don't have a hybrid, you'll be as dead as Studebaker.
Not again: Blind man caught going 100 mph in Barcelona {Autoblog}
Jan 24th 2007 12:39PM Well, many of the Michigan drivers I see every day should put a white cane in their grills because it seems they cannot see any of the speed limit signs, stop signs, traffic lights or read the rules of the road. They must be blind.
Indy's E100 season starts today, kind of {Autoblog Green}
Jan 17th 2007 1:15PM Apologies. Math correction. 25 gallon tank of ethanol = 1 person not fed for a year. Not each gallon.
Therefore, "only" 4800 people go hungry for a year so we can watch the racers go roundy round.
Indy's E100 season starts today, kind of {Autoblog Green}
Jan 17th 2007 1:13PM What's really scary is, reading yesterday's news about ethanol on this very website, it means that 120,000 human beings won't eat for a year.
Plus, ethanol car fires have invisible flames, don't they? Doesn't this put the drivers at risk?
Ethanol is DUMB.
