157mpg

[DemoCoder]

0-100km in 19 seconds? This would increase accidents and traffic congestion big time in the Bay Area. Slow mergers are one of the biggest problems, since people braking for them cause a cascade of people to step on their brakes going back thousands of feet, a spring with coils and uncoils slowly. Moreover, more skilled drivers seek to change lanes to avoid them, which increases excessive lane changes, driving up braking in the other lanes as well.

If you're going to go with 20hp, atleast add some batteries to store up generated power sufficient acceleration.

BTW, concepts cars that go over 200mpg have been demonstrated. I'm not willing to accept the tradeoffs.

 

[digitalwanderer]

heh.
You like japanese muscle cars?

Nope, I think it's much more accurate to say I love my wife's japanese muscle car.

I really do have a hard time worrying about gas mileage much considering how little distance we actually drive. Our 2004 350 has 4,000 miles on her and my 1998 Pathfinder is almost at 35,000 miles. (Both bought new)

 

[Bigus Dickus]

Top speed is only about friction. Slick, hard tires and a very low drag will get you there in the end, no matter the horsepower. The direction of the wind matters, though.

Wha?? So the friction force developed at top speed is offset by what then... a perpetual motion machine?

Low friction does translate to lower horsepower required, but power is still part of the equation. And don't forget, it isn't just raw engine power but rather what is actually available at the wheel, at the speed of interest (and, by extension, at all speeds required to reach the speed of interest).

 

[Blazkowicz]

0-100km in 19 seconds? This would increase accidents and traffic congestion big time in the Bay Area. Slow mergers are one of the biggest problems, since people braking for them cause a cascade of people to step on their brakes going back thousands of feet, a spring with coils and uncoils slowly. Moreover, more skilled drivers seek to change lanes to avoid them, which increases excessive lane changes, driving up braking in the other lanes as well.

If you're going to go with 20hp, atleast add some batteries to store up generated power sufficient acceleration.

BTW, concepts cars that go over 200mpg have been demonstrated. I'm not willing to accept the tradeoffs.

here in Europe (at least France) lanes are sorted by speed. trucks and slow speed on the right lane, legal speed on the middle lane and illegal speed on the left lane . actually, you have to be on the right if there's no slow speed things ahead, and can overtake vehicles only on its left.
As far as I know there's none of this in US?
(we typically have 2 to 4 lanes here though, never seen a 8-lane monster)

an important thing to know, take a classic car (what's the term? we say "essence") and a diesel car scoring the same at 0-100kph. the diesel car will be better at say a 50-100kph test.

 

[Frank]

Wha?? So the friction force developed at top speed is offset by what then... a perpetual motion machine?

Low friction does translate to lower horsepower required, but power is still part of the equation. And don't forget, it isn't just raw engine power but rather what is actually available at the wheel, at the speed of interest (and, by extension, at all speeds required to reach the speed of interest).

Agreed. But that goes both ways.

 

[Blazkowicz]

1734.5kg, 287hp -> ratio 0.1655, about 20mpg and a top speed of about 160mph I think.

(274lb-ft of torque)

No clue what all the numbers mean, I'm just all re-infatuated with the Z since getting her back.

imperial units for the torque?
I'm already pissed off by torque being either in m.kg or N.m (m.kg being the one I was most familiar with, and N.m being the most "SI unit compliant")

 

[Frank]

here in Europe (at least France) lanes are sorted by speed. trucks and slow speed on the right lane, legal speed on the middle lane and illegal speed on the left lane . actually, you have to be on the right if there's no slow speed things ahead, and can overtake vehicles only on its left.
As far as I one there's none of this in US?
(we typically have 2 to 4 lanes here though, never seen a 8-lane monster)

Yes, in all of Europe, AFAIK. Except the other way around in the UK, of course.

Together with less agressive driving (as 90+ % of all the cars have less than 100 BHP, so they can't, even if the drivers would want to) and the lane switching makes low-powered cars a good and safe alternative here in Europe.

But our regular cars are already the high-MPG, low-powered ones as far as the Americans know.

 

[digitalwanderer]

imperial units for the torque?

I just copied it off the window sticker verbatim that I found when I was looking for her curbweight.

I converted lbs to kg for the weight, but didn't play around with the torque at all.

 

[nintenho]

Where do they say where in the world they want to use the car? Europeans don't drive too slow, but I have a hard time seeing a small car like this as useful in a third world country.

 

[Blazkowicz]

the ls model is quite enough for many in the third world. and the gt for the rest of us. Im glad some in the auto industry are pushing the boundary in MPG race.

epic

and I'm glad they do it the obvious way : very low weight.
over the past two decades efficiency has increased but the weight increased as much, that's why my 20 year-old car is comparable on mileage to nowadays car (no airbags, ABS and electronic shit though, but I don't give a damn.)

 

[Natoma]

I wonder when Carbon Nanotubes will be cheap enough to be able to mass produce them as car body shells. That would significantly lower the weight of cars while increasing their strength (tensile and compressive no?) over today's car bodies.

 

[Moloch]

here in Europe (at least France) lanes are sorted by speed. trucks and slow speed on the right lane, legal speed on the middle lane and illegal speed on the left lane . actually, you have to be on the right if there's no slow speed things ahead, and can overtake vehicles only on its left.
As far as I know there's none of this in US?
(we typically have 2 to 4 lanes here though, never seen a 8-lane monster)

an important thing to know, take a classic car (what's the term? we say "essence") and a diesel car scoring the same at 0-100kph. the diesel car will be better at say a 50-100kph test.

Like a classic camaro

 

[l15741]

The design of the car is very futuristic and has for instance no conventional doors.

I want to know how I'm supposed to get into the thing, however for the $1800 per year I would save on gas and it only being $18,000 new, I'll think about climbing through the windows...

 

[digitalwanderer]

I want to know how I'm supposed to get into the thing

Super lightweight body on a hinge? So you just lift the whole top off?

 

[l15741]

Super lightweight body on a hinge? So you just lift the whole top off?

There we go!!!! No need to worry about parking to close on the sides, the body lifts back anywaise!!!. That actually got a chuckle out loud...

 

[digitalwanderer]

I just like the mental image of flipping the whole top off like on a cheap toy car.

 

[Mintmaster]

Top speed is only about friction. Slick, hard tires and a very low drag will get you there in the end, no matter the horsepower. The direction of the wind matters, though.

That's not right at all.

At 360km/h, 500kW (670HP) can be transmitted to the ground with a force of only 5kN. A friction coefficient of 0.8 means you only need 625kg of weight on the driving wheels. That's not much at all, so friction isn't the problem.

On the other hand, power to weight means nothing for top speed. It's about absolute power versus aerodynamics, and it doesn't matter how heavy your car is (that only affects acceleration and maybe bearing friction). That's why I find the top speed quite hard to believe on only 30 hp.

 

[nelg]

I like this idea for a technology that allows a Ford F 150 to get the same mileage as a Prius.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revealed a year ago that its transportation lab in Ann Arbor, Mich., has patented a hybrid-hydraulic technology and is working with the U.S. Army, United Parcel Service, auto parts giant Eaton Corp. and — you guessed it — Ford, in an effort to bring the new design to the U.S. marketplace.

In fact, the agency has already modified a Ford Expedition SUV with the technology, and came to the conclusion it could improve the fuel economy by 55 per cent or more while adding less than $1,000 to the cost of the vehicle. "A consumer would recoup the higher vehicle cost in less than 3 years through fuel savings and less brake wear," the agency says on its website.........

 

[WhiningKhan]

At 360km/h, 500kW (670HP) can be transmitted to the ground with a force of only 5kN. A friction coefficient of 0.8 means you only need 625kg of weight on the driving wheels. That's not much at all, so friction isn't the problem.

Err... I think he meant aerodynamic friction and rolling friction. Obviously, the wheel traction is unimportant in theoretic top speed.

On the other hand, power to weight means nothing for top speed. It's about absolute power versus aerodynamics, and it doesn't matter how heavy your car is (that only affects acceleration and maybe bearing friction). That's why I find the top speed quite hard to believe on only 30 hp.

Well, don't rely just on your beliefs... A 125cc bike can reach 160km/h with similar power and a horrible drag coefficient - motorcycles typically have Cd of something like 0.6, compared to 0.3 which is typical for an economical passenger car, and this is likely to have clearly lower drag. EDIT: Well OK, motorcycle front cross-section is quite a lot of smaller than for a car, but anyway, it shouldn't be impossible to reach speed like that.

Then again, top speed is one of the most meaningless figures for cars, and 0-100 acceleration isn't much better. What counts in real life is the acceleration in the speed ranges from 50 to 100 km/h. This car isn't meant for people who floor it on the autobahn anyway.

 

[DemoCoder]

Top speed can be approximated as terminal velocity. Terminal velocity V = sqrt(2*F/(d*r*a)), where F=your maximum force, d = drag coefficient, r=density, a=cross section area

Now, if you knew the drag coefficient, density of the car, cross section area of the front, and the driving force on the wheels, you could figure out whether the published figures for 30hp are bogus or not. (yes, you still have to take into account road friction, but as I said, it's an approximation)