Recent content by esldude

The ICE races are also the Green races. All the cars have telemetry, and with computers, they will be able to show the relative standings in the Green sense real time as the race is going on. It really isn't all that green yet, but it is a step in that direction. Next year they will use the...

It will be televised 11 am to 6 pm ET this Saturday on Speed. I am watching a preview show of the event on Speed as I type. For racefans who might not have watched any, ALMS is one of the better modern race formats in my opinion. Then again my top three choices would be eclectic as they are...

http://www.templetons.com/brad/robocars/ Very interesting though long read. Several long web pages involved. Mr. Templeton considers the future of the car. Much of it revolves around the electric car. Ultimately it involves automation of driving itself, and the ways it will alter what...

Garrett Hardin was an unusual thinker on environmental problems. Someone mentioned tragedy of the commons. Might be worthwhile to read Mr. Hardin on this idea. http://www.econlib.org/Library/Enc/TragedyoftheCommons.html And more on the idea here. Might pay particular attention to the...

Yes, but the shortage in the 70's and early 80's was purely political. It was the Arab oil embargo. They stopped shipping oil to make their point. It wasn't for lack of supply. While there is a 'bubble' in oil markets, it is also true there is now a limiting supply versus the growing demand...

Not sure I understand this. Some Trojan lead acid batteries hold 1200 watt-hours. So ten of those is 12,000 w-h. That isn't so much as to be unworkable. And charging those will only take a few hours. Sure a few seconds will replenish far more energy with gasoline. But for many day to day...

Yep, I did neglect the inefficiency of the electric motor itself. So yeah some 11,000 w-h or so to equal one gallon of gasoline.

25% is the number I used. 9000 w-hr's takes into account ICE inefficiency. I actually went about the conversion more than one way getting similar answers. One of the simpler ones is using Brake Specific Fuel Consumption which is typically around .5 lbs/hp/hr for gasoline. 6.2 lbs per...

Was doing some pondering on relative energy needs when doing a conversion. It came to mind that I needed to know how much energy at the driven wheel from electricity equals that from gasoline. So taking into account relative efficiencies and energy contents of gasoline it works out to...

So Toshi, Why not find out the speed at which you get maximum MPG and only drive at that speed? It probably isn't far from 55 mph for your RX8. Then again, why not get something else that gets more mpg anyway? Humans are overweight, ugly, irresponsible and none too smart according to you...

Speed isn't the only cause of crashes.

My comments were taken out of context. The idea that a 55 mph speed limit saved lives because the number of traffic fatalities went down is suspect because the rules changed at that same time. That isn't the same as saying slower crashes are not actually less deadly as they clearly are...

Hello All, My first post here. I am for letting folks drive what speed they want to for the most part. 55 mph as a live saving issue is probably somewhat suspect. For one thing the last year of 70 mph injuries resulting in death from an auto accident had to occur within 30 days of the...