Posted on 08/06/2002 2:08:25 PM PDT by Recovering_Democrat
To listen to automakers snipe about tightening fuel economy standards, you'd think it impossible to squeeze more miles from a barrel of Extract of Arabia. This, of course, is not the case, particularly if you design a vehicle expressly to drive far and drink little.
Forget power, space, and speed: Volkswagen AG's latest idea-on-wheels does not address the requirements of the average American family driver. What it can do is travel more than 100 kilometers on a single liter of fuel. Translation: 235 miles per gallon.
The car's designers combined highly tuned aerodynamics, exotic materials, and a 0.3-liter diesel engine to achieve 0.99 liters per 100 kilometers. The project, the brainchild of engineer Thomas Gänsicke, is an engineering exercise and therefore has rather whimsical features. Most noticeable are the car's canoe-like proportions: It's 4 feet wide and 11 feet long. Occupants sit tandem, the passenger straddling the driver's seat, both wedged under a 4-foot-long gullwing canopy.
Three video cameras eliminate the mileage-reducing wind drag of rearview mirrors. Wheels are faired in, side-cooling air inlets open only when necessary, and even the keylocks have been replaced by a proximity unlocking system. The resulting coefficient of drag is 0.159, compared with 0.30 or so for most production cars.
The slinky carbon-fiber bodywork covering the magnesium frame is just the beginning of the unobtainium-based technology used throughout. The front suspension is a combination of titanium, aluminum, magnesium, and ceramics and weighs less than 18 pounds. The single-cylinder four-stroke engine has monoblock constructionthere's no separate cylinder headand is all aluminum. Fuel is atomized directly into the cylinder at 28,000 psi. Two overhead camshafts operate the one exhaust and two inlet valves. The fuel pump is magnesium, the exhaust system titanium.
The engine produces a thundering 8.5 horsepower and weighs only 57 pounds. It conspires with a 6-speed gearboxmagnesium housing, hollow shafts, titanium boltsto pinch miles from the diesel fuel. The transmission shifts electronically, killing the engine when an onboard computer foresees an inkling of fuel savings. A starter-generator, with energy stored in nickel-metal batteries, rekindles the engine as necessary.
Because the electric motor only restarts the engine, the 1-liter car is not a hybrid. Gänsicke explains that if fuel economy wasn't paramount, the motor could be used to increase horsepower and torque by 30 percent. "But that's not the effect we wanted." In fact, he's not terribly specific about performance, other than to say that top speed exceeds 70 mph and that it's "not very quick in accelerating."
It can, he promises, "swim with the usual traffic." Who better to emphasize that point than Ferdinand Piëch, chairman of VW? For the most recent board meeting in April, Piëch drove the 1-liter car from Wolfsburg to Hamburg, 110 miles, averaging 264 miles per gallon on the way. That works out to an ultra-miserly 0.89 liters per 100 kilometers.
Of course, "0.89-liter car" doesn't quite have the same ring.
SIZING UP THE SMALL FRIES
How VW's 1-liter machine stacks up against the shortest-wheelbase vehicle on American roads today, the Mazda Miata.
VW 1-Liter Car
Length: 143.7 in.
Width: 49.1 in.
Height: 43.7 in.
Weight: 588 pounds
Peak Power: 8.5 hp
Fuel Capacity: 1.7 gal.
Mileage: 235 mpg
Mazda Miata
Length: 155.3 in.
Width: 66.0 in.
Height: 48.4 in.
Weight: 2,387 pounds
Peak Power: 142 hp
Fuel Capacity: 12.7 gal.
Mileage: 29 mpg
I believe it is a 1947; I had one just like it when I was 16, it was 9 years old and cost my dad $175.00.
Flathead V-8 with hydraulic lifters, 6 volt system and hydromatic transmission.
Interesting story. But, in my experience, it doesn't apply to driving. Next time you drive toward the sun, take note of which oncoming cars you can see most easily. The cars without lights are mere shadows. The ones with lights are distinct.
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go to www.eclipseaviation.com for the real story.
Seems a bit crowded in that cockpit. &;-)
Now THIS is a gullwing ... &;-)
Dunno, I mean, if she had a close friend, and they were both very petite...
Wonder what a Porsche model would look like........... : )
Really? I'm going to have to talk to my supplier then, 'cuz they aren't sending me sodium...
Any of the alkali and alkaline earth metals will react violently with water. For example, take a sliver of sodium or potassium and throw it into a bucket of water and it'll skitter across the surface, "melting" until its all in solution, shooting out flames and smoke.
What happens with the first column elements is that they have a single electron on the outermost side of the atom. They react with the water, splitting it into a hydroxide, sodium in this case, and hydrogen gas which is flammable. You can take water with a pH indicator, and dump some sodium into it, and see the indicator turn basic.
Fighting a light metal fire with water will not work due to the above mentioned reaction.
As far as Deltas go, I work with metal hydrides on a daily basis. Delta fires are Not A Big Deal, after fighting the first dozen or so...
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