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Kids Build Soybean-Fueled Car(50 MPG & 0-60 MPH 4 SEC!)
CBS NEWS ^ | Feb. 17, 2006 | STAFF

Posted on 03/29/2006 3:43:18 PM PST by kellynla

(CBS) The star at last week's Philadelphia Auto Show wasn't a sports car or an economy car. It was a sports-economy car — one that combines performance and practicality under one hood.

But as CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports in this week's Assignment America, the car that buyers have been waiting decades comes from an unexpected source and runs on soybean bio-diesel fuel to boot.

A car that can go from zero to 60 in four seconds and get more than 50 miles to the gallon would be enough to pique any driver's interest. So who do we have to thank for it. Ford? GM? Toyota? No — just Victor, David, Cheeseborough, Bruce, and Kosi, five kids from the auto shop program at West Philadelphia High School

The five kids, along with a handful of schoolmates, built the soybean-fueled car as an after-school project. It took them more than a year — rummaging for parts, configuring wires and learning as they went. As teacher Simon Hauger notes, these kids weren't exactly the cream of the academic crop.

(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News
KEYWORDS: automobiles; cars
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To: saganite

If you're going to continue to break wind; we'd appreciate it if you'd go elsewhere...
you have contributed absolutely NOTHING...
do us all a favor and take your inane posts elsewhere!


141 posted on 03/30/2006 11:10:31 AM PST by kellynla (Freedom of speech makes it easier to spot the idiots. Semper Fi!)
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To: kellynla

Why would I address you? Remember, my opinion doesn't count according to you.


142 posted on 03/30/2006 11:14:43 AM PST by Trinity5
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Comment #143 Removed by Moderator

To: kellynla

Who's we? Got a frog in your pocket?

As for my contribution, I've asked you repeatedly to justify some very dubious claims by posting a link. You obviously have ample time to shout at everyone here but no time to prove your point. I can only assume you're blowing smoke and can't prove it.

So much for not contributing. Now, go back to chewing your rug.


144 posted on 03/30/2006 11:17:57 AM PST by saganite (The poster formerly known as Arkie 2)
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To: saganite
Recent picture of Kelly:


145 posted on 03/30/2006 11:18:17 AM PST by Trinity5
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To: Keith in Iowa

Yes, 100% ethanol can be used as a fuel. But even in Brazil you need to start the car on gasoline and then switch over to ethanol, since ethanol has a low vapor pressure at lower temps, and has a high heat of vaporization. Engines that can be started and run on gasoline can't be optimized for alcohol - optimizing for alcohol would typically involve raising the compression ratio significantly to take advantage of the high octane value of ethanol. Plus, burning straight ethanol as a fuel results in some rather nasty exhaust gasses - formaldehyde, for one, IIRC.

And then, of course, most places don't have the cheap labour and large tracts of rain forest that can be clear cut and sugar cane grown on (at least for a few years). And few other inputs for alcohol production can compare to sugar cane, in terms of efficiencies.


146 posted on 03/30/2006 11:20:37 AM PST by -YYZ-
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To: MNJohnnie
Do they report how much oil their Bio-Disel fuel source uses in refining it?

Perhaps that's the next thing, after HS.

147 posted on 03/30/2006 11:22:05 AM PST by Protagoras (The world is full of successful idiots and genius failures.)
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To: dhs12345

"Count on your gas mileage to drop. Ethanol has 66% of the energy than gasoline."

But it has a high resistance to detonation, so it can be used with higher compression ratios, which increase power and efficiency, or higher levels of boost in turbocharged engines, increasing power but not efficiency.


148 posted on 03/30/2006 11:23:39 AM PST by -YYZ-
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To: -YYZ-
"But it has a high resistance to detonation, so it can be used with higher compression ratios, which increase power and efficiency, or higher levels of boost in turbocharged engines, increasing power but not efficiency."

Which is why it's ideal for racing vehicles. Not the fuel efficient vehicles needed today.

149 posted on 03/30/2006 11:26:33 AM PST by Trinity5
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To: G.Mason
At last, a use for soybeans.

I like soybeans. I had some for dinner the other day. They were delicious.

150 posted on 03/30/2006 11:27:31 AM PST by Protagoras (The world is full of successful idiots and genius failures.)
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Comment #151 Removed by Moderator

To: Trinity5

Must be a picture of you.

Since I served in the Marine Corps in war and you served????

Let us all know when you enlist...


152 posted on 03/30/2006 11:41:35 AM PST by kellynla (Freedom of speech makes it easier to spot the idiots. Semper Fi!)
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To: -YYZ-
I am burning a mixture of gas/ethanol and my turbo doesn't like it. Can get another 3lbs of boost with straight gasoline. This experiment isn't exactly scientific since all conditions weren't exactly the same. Actually, my engine doesn't like it either -- loss in performance.

My dealer told me it is the ethanol mix.

Gas mileage for me is less, too by about 5% for 10% ethanol.
153 posted on 03/30/2006 11:45:26 AM PST by dhs12345
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To: kellynla

Aren't you tired of playing that same record over and over and over? My business card says Department of Justice. Does that entitle my opinions on Law or Justice to be more credible or important then yours?


154 posted on 03/30/2006 11:45:45 AM PST by Trinity5
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To: Protagoras
GET WIND OF THIS!

"Texas inventor Frank Lathrop has come up with the perfect solution for the soy gas problem – a seat cushion known as the "TooT TrappeR™.

" Billed as a "reverse whoopee cushion," it is packed with a carbon air filter that is guaranteed to absorb odors and stop toots in their tracks.

The company also offers a panty liner made with the trademarked "Flatulence Filter.™"

From ... this here place


Now we simply need a pump from car seat filter to "gas" tank, a large bowl of soybeans, and off we go. ;)




155 posted on 03/30/2006 11:49:54 AM PST by G.Mason (Duty, Honor, Country)
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To: kellynla

And just for your knowledge I'll be on three Air Force Bases, Two National Guard Bases, and three additional Federal Facilities next week alone. You don't have to "enlist" in order to be able to serve your country moron.


156 posted on 03/30/2006 11:50:10 AM PST by Trinity5
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To: saganite
Boys Rocket?

Nice. It was actually "Rocket Boys". I guess they thought it didn't sound catchy enough, or maybe it sounded to science-fictiony for them. The anagram was a lucky coincidence, I guess.

157 posted on 03/30/2006 12:17:19 PM PST by Tanniker Smith (I didn't know she was a liberal when I married her.)
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To: Tanniker Smith

Darn! So close. I don't know why I didn't think to reverse it.


158 posted on 03/30/2006 12:23:47 PM PST by saganite (The poster formerly known as Arkie 2)
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To: kellynla

>>>>"I wouldn't even think of it"<<<<

Doing you a favor.

You and Dan Rather both insult the Corps

TT


159 posted on 03/30/2006 12:25:53 PM PST by TexasTransplant (NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSET)
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To: dhs12345

Ethanol also effectively leans out the mixture, I believe, which would contribute to detonation. Need a richer mixture, the greater % of alcohol that you're using.

Anyway, I could be confused and it's actually methanol that has a really good AKI, not ethanol. In which case that's just one more knock against ethanol.


160 posted on 03/30/2006 12:29:09 PM PST by -YYZ-
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