That's a fact .......
Some days, a man has to make a statement by driving a car with a 15.8-ft. wheelbase and an engine with a 16-gal. crankcase.
I see he turbo'd the Tank Car
Posted on 07/10/2007 1:44:39 PM PDT by grundle
You're kidding right?
There's nothing "ghey" about a kick ass roadster that does 0 ~ 60 in 4seconds, and tops out at 130.
A gear head is a gear head. I can do gas or, with those kind of numbers, electric. It don't matter what drives the gears.
And a Porsche would kill to have the Tesla's torque curve. Well, curve is probably an incorrect description. A box, or right angle(starting at zero when you hit the peddle) would be more appropriate.
Acceleration 0-60mph: 4sec
My, my, my...
No, I understand that, I read once where if every car in the US was switched to electric, we’d save 9% on the oil we need, and that just doesn’t seem like a big savior to me. We need a completely new idea.
I mean, look at our power plants— they’re driven by steam engines! That’s amazing to me. In a nuclear power plant, the nuclear fuel rods just heat the water to make steam, still, 300 year old technology. I’m ashamed to be human- ha ha
Hmmmmmmmmm. Nuclear energy.
That's a fact .......
Some days, a man has to make a statement by driving a car with a 15.8-ft. wheelbase and an engine with a 16-gal. crankcase.
I see he turbo'd the Tank Car
Dang, if that’s a V12, that motor was probably put into a few boats from the “Golden Age”.
Actually, you started out in "low"-- the engine speed was what was high.
The classic Dynaflow was pure fluid drive; as you say, no gears. I was fascinated by a clear plastic scale model at our Buick dealers's. It sat on a little wood base and you could crank it to watch it operate. (Dad became a Buick Man in '51 and never looked back.)
Problem with Dynaflow was efficency; i.e., gas mileage. In the 60's, GM standardized on the Turbo-Hydramatic, originally an Oldsmobile design, so Buick switched to that.
Being a more traditional design, the Hydramatic had a multiple-ratio gear train (3 or 4 speeds) driven by a "torque converter," a fluid turbine that evened out the torque discontinuities at startup and during gear changes.
In contrast, the Dynaflow was just a big torque converter with no variable gearing downstream. Late designs had variable pitch blades in the turbine.
The torque converter has the interesting virtue of increasing its effective step-down ratio when the torque load on it increases, and it does this with no meshing parts; just the impeller, the turbine, and the fluid. This makes it a good complement to the hard gear ratios downstream in the main body of the transmission. And, of course, it tolerates being stalled; i.e., having the engine idle while you are stopped but still in gear. In essence, it is the equivalent of the clutch in a manual transmission.
Now the torque converter is lossy, for the same reason that the old Dynaflow was: losses in the fluid flow. Modern automatic transmissions "lock up" the torque converter during the long periods when you're just cruising along at a constant speed, making little torque demand on the engine.
I heard it has to be recharged much sooner than advertised if you flog with some WOT time. Basically, you couldn’t take it to the race track yet.
Bring it down to 30-40k...and I’ll take on....100k...ehhh!?
Well WOT will drain any energy source. It may not be ready for prime time on the track, but it sure sounds a lot better than what has come before. And battery tech is getting better all the time. And I think there are other ways to extend that range, although I won’t go into that.
I’m more excited about the Volt. That....looks sweet.
Does it have enough reserve electric power for the ultra powerful speakers that simulates a Ferrari throaty snarl upon acceleration?
Whiners will whine if all it does is whine.
I think we’ve just found the next car for Al Gore’s kid to drive for
his next encounter with the police.
(And I’m not knocking the kid...he obviously has a problem.
If Al and Tipper were really concerned about “saving the earth”,
they’d call the “Intervention” folks at A&E channel and volunteer
to get their kid some help.)
Pebble-bed nuclear reactors might be one of the new ideas you’re after. The Chinese will probably be the first to build them — because they won’t have any internal opposition.
Please Freep Mail me if you'd like on/off
Could Slot Cars be in NASCAR’S future?
The answer is, any thing is possible for the new dictator running the empire...
Thought about that the other day. Then we could ALL play! :)
I’m not a great mechanic, but I like working with my hands and thought I would like to be one, way back in the 1960’s.
Then, thought I, the way they are talking, it will be a short time before the electric car is available, and I’ll be out of a profession.
Shows how much I knew/know.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.