Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Hybrid Hoax Hits Hollywood


"Gas Guzzlers Get New Lives As Tire Smoking Hybrids" - NOT!
WICHITA, Kansas (CNN) -- "On a beautiful, crisp late fall afternoon, rock icon Neil Young took his 1959 Lincoln Continental for one last spin before a team of mechanics ripped out its gas-guzzling engine to make way for an electric motor."
The same moonbats that told us in 1974 that we all had to get rid of our muslecars because the Ford Pinto and other micro-plastic piles of flaming junk were the environmentally safe and gas mileage cars of the future, have a new scheme just as sure to fail. Don't be 'fueled' by this.

Today you can get a Pinto at the junk yard for about $200 or a restored one for maybe $2,000. On the other hand a fully restored 1969 Hemi Cuda or Z-28 Camaro can be worth about a cool million bucks at the Barrett Jackson Car Auction.

Now, there is a new company that for "only" $40,000.00 will remove that big engine from your classic car and make it virtually worthless by installing a bio-diesel/electric hybrid engine combo.

You will be able to impress your moonbat greeny friends and maybe get your picture in the paper for destroying a classic car, but as far as actually helping the environment... not so much.

But I do have to give this guy credit, he knows marketing and he knows that the left will buy anything and pay any amount just to say they are 'green'.

The story falsely claims that these cars will perform as well as they did before with the new engine combo... which is not true. First, they haven't even built the first one yet and have no idea what it will do. I do know this however...
There is not a hybrid diesel/electric combo on the market that can out perform an American V8 engine in a street car in the quarter mile, which is the true standard for performance of a hotrod. There is not an electric motor that even comes close. Diesel engines operate at lower RPM and have a narrower power band than their gasoline counterparts, so the transmission and rearend gear ratios must be changed to accommodate this fact, something not mentioned in the article, probably because the designer hasn't gotten that far and figured that out yet. There are other problems as well.

As far as the "tire smoking" part, what self respecting environmentalist would promote setting tires on fire to save the environment? NONE, but they know it is just a false advertising claim designed to attract novice or unsuspecting newbies with no experience in such matters.

This is a sales con-job of the highest degree and Hollywooders are lined up to pay $40k to ruin their cars. Someone should start a company that fixes cars back to the way they were after this guy gets done with them (for $80k).

Having built several custom cars and race cars over the years, the first rule when doing something new and radical is "there will be problems", bugs to work out... and lots of them. These cars will not be like something that rolls off the showroom floor. Putting an untested engine combination in an old classic car is certain to be riddled with unsolvable issues yet to be discovered by these "pie-in-the-sky" Dr Frankensteins who think it's just a matter of taking the old engine out and putting the new one(s) in...presto! LOL

I predict that a full year from now, Neil Young will STILL be trying to get the thing to run right.

It's typical of the lefty environmentalists who've never ridden in a muslecar nor have never been to a drag strip, yet try and tell those of us that have, all about the 'performance' of their latest scheme to improve on something that is already perfect.

He claims his car will get 100mpg when it's completed and not lose any performance. I've got some great swamp land down in the swamp that you might be interested in to build a house on also. $40k will buy quite a few tanks of premium gasoline and even at only 15 mpg, it would take a very very long time for it to break even, much less save you money at the pump. $40k will buy you almost 1,000 tanks of gas, and at only10mpg is still over 200 miles per tank or nearly 200,000 miles total!

They did it to us with the Pinto in 1974 and they are trying to do it again in 2007.
Don't fall for it folks, unless you have an extra $40k lying around to throw away on destroying a classic car for anyone else to ever enjoy.

UPDATE: In case you are thinking that you are gonna' set me straight on how fast diesels are, if you try and compare a turbocharged or supercharged diesel using nitrous oxide boost to a stock Camaro on gasoline...(see comments, lol) the Camaro still wins.... easily.
A stripped down, tube chassis, ultra tricked out diesel race truck that is supercharged and uses nitrous is capable of mid 10 second ET's (Elapsed Time) in the quarter mile.
An NHRA Stock Eliminator class 69 Camaro with a single original 4bbl carb runs in the high 9 second range on gasoline. They both weigh about 3,000lbs. Nearly a full second in the quarter mile is "light years" in drag racing terms.
source: NHRA National Records.

Put a supercharger and some nitrous on that Camaro and it will run in the high 6 second range, something no diesel or electric car has EVER accomplished yet hundreds of Camaro's and muslcecars across the country HAVE.

Now, if you tell me that a diesel electric hybrid might get better mileage than a muslecar at the cost of performance, okay fine... that's debatable. But when you start telling me that it will out perform that muslecar... then you are a liar.
End of story.

More pics of our dragster...


Letting fans get up close and personal is our specialty!

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9 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

You're obviously not a car guy. There ARE diesel four door dually pick-up trucks that will smoke all yer Camaros, Mustangs, whatever.
As for electrics, how does 0-60 in 3 seconds sound to you?
Maybe you should do your homework before you write this kind of garbage. Doesn't your computer have Google?

7:30 AM  
Blogger RD said...

right... not a car guy, but yet somehow thats me in the pic with a dragster.
You've got a 6,000 lb truck that can run with a 3,000 lb car... uh huh, that's why all of the drag racing cars....are trucks! (NOT).

Yes I know about tricking up your truck, chuck

Next you're gonna tell me it will outrun a prostock bike.lol?

Okay on to the electrics... yes I have google, but I read past the headline Domenick.

"The X1 prototype is a concept car, and a test platform. ... It meets its design specs of 0-60 in 3 seconds, 170 mpg equivalent; and at 1536 lbs".

1500lbs? LOL No wonder you wanted to compare it to a 3,000 lb camaro.

Our dragster weighs 1325lbs is naturally aspirated and goes from zero to over 100mph in under 3 seconds. 0-60 in just over a second. How does THAT sound to you?

Price of you electric car?
$660,000.00 and all of the bugs have not yet been worked out.

Good luck with your diesel electric car/truck.

Maybe somewhere down the road DETROIT will make this work, but as for these backyard mechanics...LOL
not so much.

As for the garbage, well... that is probably where Neil Youngs car will end up.

8:04 AM  
Blogger RD said...

I'll be nice and explain this to Domenick since he doesn't read past headlines.

You can purchase a 400 cu. in. gasoline powered crate motor that produces around 500HP virtually anywhere.

You can also get 500Hp from a big diesel engine.

The difference?
The diesel engine weighs about twice as much and has a narrower power band but generally more torque.

Now, you put a 500HP engine in a 3,000lb car and line it up against a 500hp engine in a 6,000 lb truck, well... the performance won't be anywhere close to the same.

Put that 500HP diesel in a 3,000lb car and you've now got a 3,400 lb car. It still won't run with the 3,000lb car with the 500HP gasoline engine.

You don't need google to figure that one out Dom.

8:15 AM  
Blogger RD said...

More for any of you Domenicks out there... this is from a guy who races a diesel truck.

Although it is not a car, I do have a tube chassis D-50 Dodge with a 212 ci diesel with a 4 speed automatic trans,9 inch rear etc. It is supercharged/turbocharged with NOS, I run 65 lbs boost. It is a 1/4 mile only vehicle that has run a best of 10.68 @131 mph.

The draw back to my combo is the weight of the engine/trans, at nearly 1400 lbs it brings the vehicle weight to 2950 w/250 lb driver.


So, you see Dom, the engine and tranny alone weighs as much as our entire car complete while ir doesn't produce any more HP. There is no way on God's earth it can compete.

Also, Domenick wanted to compare a turbocharged or supercharged diesel to a naturally aspirated (carb or injected) gasoline engine.

Typical.

8:24 AM  
Blogger RD said...

Gee, I wonder why Domenick hasn't done another "drive-by" comment posting?

Maybe his electro-diesel broke down on him... again.

10:48 AM  
Blogger imok said...

Gee, maybe you bored him to death.

11:17 AM  
Blogger RD said...

imok, well apparently you weren't too bored to comment.

Facts have a way of doing that to moonbat liberals.

11:36 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I haven't been by because I took my wife shopping. And then I slept...
I read your item after working all night and didn't quite register the hybrid electro/ part of the diesel equation. That's why I brought up the truck. Still, a diesel truck with the cold air intake, 3 inch exhaust and chipped should get 12's in the quarter which is as good or better than most 302/350 Mustangs/Camaros. Of course, if you drop in 400 cu in. your going to do better.
Still..you said there is not an electric motor that comes close to the performance of an American v-8 and that's not altogether so. Maybe in this setup, saddled with a small diesel motor and a battery, Young's car won't be taking the front wheels off the ground, but it could get pretty decent performance. (the diesel motor is not mechanically attached to the drive train. It only generates power for the battery.) The top end speed might come down a bit though. This Goodwin guy has been doing Hummer conversions and getting some amazing results. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/120/motorhead-messiah.html

There are a few different electric cars that are competitive with internal combustors. Usually the limiting factor of electrics is the amount of electrons you can pump into it. The X1, which is a test platform as you mentioned, is only one of several. It's time is almost as fast as your dragster, which is 200 lbs. lighter, and can turn corners. There is also the Tango http://www.commutercars.com/ which turns 12's in the quarter and 0-60 in 4 seconds. It's a little over $100,000 (not $600,000) has a rollcage and is street legal. There is the Venturi Fetish http://www.venturi.fr/-Home-page-.html (which IS $600,000). It's carbon fiber and it's 0-60 is under 5 seconds.
I imagine you are already familiar with the Tesla Roadster http://www.teslamotors.com/ . It's a sub 4 second 0-60, street legal beautiful looking car. You can order one now for around $100,000.

7:20 PM  
Blogger RD said...

Okay domenick, I gave you the benefit of the doubt and went to each of your links...

the first one.. fastcompanymagazine doesn't work, page not found.

next, the 'tango' lol, dom... it's a golf cart at best, a motorcycle with 4 wheels... it's a joke, I can't believe you are using it as an example of great electric cars.

I'll save you the trouble you put me through and comment on the final two links at the same time.

Not available in the US and not available.

Now, back to my original statement which is still correct.

Diesel engined vehicles can't compete with gas engines in terms of passenger car 1/4 mile and street, lb for lb HP/HP performance to performance... period.

If you wanna talk torque and pulling power that's another matter and not what I claimed. Diesels certainly have plenty of torque, but the narrow power band is a problem in passenger car applications. That is why they usually are turbo'd to deliver more HP in that power band... and the need for multi gear heavy transmissions.

A hybrid electric diesel may be the future of automotive design... but we are nowhere close to being there now.

Implying as the article does that you can just have this guy drop an unproven hybric setup in your classic and head across country and save the planet is irresponsible at best.

Your futile attempt to bolster this claim is really not worthy of further attention. I wasted too much time giving you the benefit of the doubt in the first place... I was wrong in that case.

9:26 PM  

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