Steam-Powered Car Breaks Record in Mojave Posted on August 29th, 2009
I read about this in Wired’s Autopia and had to talk about it. I’ll admit, it’s not really “green” or “enviornmentally friendly” or anything, but it’s friggin cool as hell!
When I think of steam-powered cars, I think of the old jalopies like you might see in the Smithsonian or Jay Leno’s Garage. Cool, sure, but fast? Comon. I’ve seen more than one steam-powered tractor at the local shows and I know that, if they move at all, it’s not more than a couple of miles an hour. I don’t know why farmers bothered buying them back in the day, since they took a cord of wood to get anywhere. Even gasoline isn’t that inefficient.
So the original record for fastest steam-powered car was set in 1906 when a car went 127.6 miles per hour. Can you imagine doing that in a giant tea pot with wheels? Can you comprehend the kind of pressure that must be required to push a car that fast? Imagine if it sprunk a leak and exploded. Holy cripes!
Well, that was 1906.
On August 25, 2009, Team Steam with their car Inspiration launched a steam-powered speed racer in the Mojave Desert that broke that record at 139.6 miles per hour. They weren’t done yet, though. The driver topped a maximum speed of 151.085 later in the day! Of course, the average is what matters in this case (two runs at 1 mile each, one each direction), which in this case was 139.6mph. Still…
That’s right. Over a hundred and fifty miles an hour in a car powered by really hot water. Imagine that! Would you be willing to strap yourself into a giant boiler with wheels and hope for the best?
Here’s the car itself, hood up and guts exposed. Pretty complicated machine for running on technology that’s more than a century old now. Isn’t it?
Photo from Wired Autopia
Cash for Clunkers Gets Another $2 Billion From Energy Loan Guarantee Program Posted on August 10th, 2009
When the “Cash for Clunkers” program was still just an idea that wasn’t even completely written as legislation, I wrote about it at Zoomilife as being a bad idea. Then it passed and the program became official, so I wrote about how the setup would fail right off the bat. I wrote another tirade about it again here, analyzing the questionable math involved in the voucher program. Then I published a reprint of what Edmunds.com had to say about the program after it immediately ran out of cash.
Hate to say “I told you so,” but…
Congress has approved “emergency funding” for the CARS (their name for Cash for Clunkers) and Obama signed that earlier this month. This funding is another $2 billion bucks. It’s coming from the Department of Energy’s Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee Program. In other words, President Obama and Congress aren’t so much interested in future renewables as they are in making sure that current clunkers get purchased (at a cost of $20,000 each) and the auto industry gets plenty of cash injections.
I guess that since Washington (supposedly meaning us) has a huge stake in GM now, they have a vested interest in throwing more money at it. Or something. Except GM wasn’t a big winner in this–or even a real benefactor, for that matter. Ford, the only one of the Big 3 to refuse government bailouts, is the one who made out like bandits.
To give some credit, so far Cash for Clunkers is credited with adding another 7 million cars. Which is very interesting since not all of those could have received Cash for Clunkers vouchers. Not by a long shot. The most it could have really accounted for (assuming a cost of $4,500/voucher) is about 222,223 cars.
Anyway, at the cost of building newer and better windmills, more robust and efficient solar cells, and higher-return and road-ready hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, we’re going to sell more Fords. Who’s great idea was this? Oh, ya, Congress and Obama. Well, what do you expect from politicians? Logic and sense?
According to reports from Edmunds and Green Car Congress, the big benefactors of this program in July were the Ford Escape (an SUV) and the Ford Focus (small car). Neither of those is a hybrid, alt-fuel, or in any other way “green” other than they have better mileage than some of their counterparts.
So Ford’s bottom line is a little better.
That’s awesome for Ford, but what about the rest of us? That’s our money, after all. All two billion of it. Are you happy that you’re helping someone else get a new car by paying for some of it out of your own pocket? Me either. This is blatant governmental wealth redistribution. And who benefits? Not the poor, not the downtrodden, not even the middle class. The benefactors are the banks and lending institutions that get the interest on the loans they gave to buy these new cars. In other words, Wall Street once again gets another bailout.
Isn’t it time we started questioning all of this government intervention and meddling in things? It’s getting a little old.
Bosch Says Electric Vehicles Won’t Become Pervasive for at Least 20 Years Posted on July 21st, 2009
Full electric power trains like battery electrics, hydrogen fuel cells, and so forth are coming, but slowly. Let’s face it: most of those on the market so far are nothing more than curiosities. The Tesla Roadster and the Aptera 2e, while they look really good and are desirable vehicles, aren’t exactly mainstream.
Whether it’s the price tag, the limited occupancy, or just the limited numbers available, full electric cars aren’t here yet. While the next five years promise to see many new models from several manufacturers hitting the streets of the world, it will be a long time before these vehicles are totally accepted and are available to everyone.
Read the rest of this at Zoomilife.com.
Solar Police Cars in Ohio Posted on June 14th, 2009
OK, the title is misleading, I’ll be up front about that. Their cars aren’t really going solar, but they’re getting solar panels installed into the back windows to power the car’s electronics. So it’s sort of true, if you stretch it a bit, and it makes for a good headline. Right?
The Ohio State Highway Patrol plans to save about a million bucks in fuel costs by installing these panels in their cars. Now, officers on “stationary patrol” (parked at key locations or watching traffic) can shut their vehicles down and not drain their batteries with their radios and other electronics. Plus it should save some money on the batteries themselves, which will gain charge time when the electronics aren’t draining the panels’ input.
Most cops now, when they sit in their cars, keep the engine idling in order to keep their electronics powered up. Radios, portable computers, and so forth can create a lot of drag on a vehicle’s battery. These panels should eliminate much of that and allow the cars to be off during the daytime. When the car is off and vacant, the panels will keep the batteries topped off, which boosts their lifespan as well.
Each car gets a $37 solar panel (5W output) that will wire simply and directly into the lead-acid battery under the hood. The OSHP says that 1,200 cars are slated to get these installations done this year.
One more interesting note: the brackets used to install the panels are made from rejected (misprint) license plates. Recycling even! Nicely done, Ohio!
You can see a video on this at the WTOL Channel 11 news site.
BYD Gains VW As Partner, Ford May Follow – Other Partnerships Also In the Works Posted on June 8th, 2009
A lot of exciting news has happened regarding corporate partnerships and alliances over the past week or so. Volkswagen and BYD, Daimler and Tesla, and others. Car makers are entering the new era of auto manufacturing by taking a lesson from the tech sector: you can’t do it all alone anymore.
Volkswagen and BYD’s Partnership
Volkswagen has signed on with China’s Build Your Dream (BYD), issuing a letter of intent for hybrid and electric cars. Ford and at least one other European automaker are said to be negotiating similar arrangements with BYD as well. Looks like Warren Buffet backed the right horse after all.
