50 mpg (diesel), 0-60 in 4 seconds, serial "attack hybrid"

[skids]

...biodiesel electric, using efficient, long-lasting ultracaps.



Who made it?








Wait for it...








Wait for it...






Those voc-tech students in the above picture.

I'd write more, but kossak Burton Halli already did a great job writing it up on DailyKos:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/8/105134/4316

[Redstone]

1. Volkswagen has a car like that too. Called the "Eco Racer."

Redstone

[CJCRANE]

2. Like it! nt

[JohnWxy]

3. call Bill Gates, call Warren Buffett - get these guys started selling

their car and taking market share from Detroit! They wouldn't even have to make one as horrendously fast as this car for most people.

[holboz]

16. Exactly, A cottage industry will rise...

People who know how to build high performance hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles stand to make a decent bit of money. I'm torn between a hybrid or a diesel engine (a diesel with the hopes of using a biodiesel fuel).

That's a great story. Well done to those high school kids!

[phantom power]

4. There's some reasons it outperforms a car like the Prius...

1) It's smaller and lighter than a Prius. It's got a carbon-fiber body, for cryin out loud. Let's just say it probably won't win any 5-star crash ratings.

2) It's literally all engine. Under the hood and in the trunk. Little or no cargo capacity.

3) It's got $100 thousand bucks of parts. Not exactly price-competitive.

I'm sure it makes a fine sports-car, but it's not like Toyota couldn't have made this car. Toyota made the Prius because they were trying to make a car that's both more useful and more affordable.

Just sayin.

[skids]

5. Actually the Prius still outperforms it on mileage.

Just sayin.

Weight notwithstanding, their electrical motor is huge compared to the Prius by HP. But I'll bet even so it doesn't come close to taking up all the underhood space -- they probably only used the trunk because they weren't in a position to engineer the profiles of the two motors.

But anyway, lose the racing tires and all the luxury trim and you're talking a lot less than $100,000. None of that's the point. The point is that they got that much of a mileage/power boost from a really simple system -- just some ultracaps, no long-term electrical storage. And they did it without any engineering degrees.

The point is just to belie the American auto makers' excuses for not having decent hybrids on the market much sooner. Had they treated them seriously and applied all their parts-sourcing, corner cutting, process-smoothing know-how to the technology they wouldn't be so behind the times.

P.S. I wonder who decided to go with the ultracaps -- the professor, or one of the students who was into souping up car stereos :headbang:

[phantom power]

6. No doubt, the Big Three didn't do it because they didn't want to.

[Massacure]

7. Carbon fiber is also expensive.

About 3x more than steel if I recall. If carbon fiber comes down in price, or if steel goes up, then it become competitive.

[One_Life_To_Give]

11. Is Carbon Fibre Recycleable?

Just thinking about the move to remove glass from many plastics due to recycling and the WEEE directive.

[Massacure]

15. I do not know...

Wikipidia says yes, but that the aeronautical industry will not take it because it loses its strength by doing so. Perhaps we should find somebody who is more knowledgeable about it to answer to as to exactly how much.

btw, WEEE only covers electrical waste, correct? I do not think that has anything to do with carbon fiber. Carbon fiber does stay around for a very long time though.

[Kolesar]

17. Amory Lovins--Rocky Mtn Inst.--is a big advocate of composite autobodies

I recall reading that from one of his recent releases. (I cannot seem to find that email in my directory, though.)

[vorlund]

9. It is a prototype

Start Quote

1) It's smaller and lighter than a Prius. It's got a carbon-fiber body, for cryin out loud. Let's just say it probably won't win any 5-star crash ratings.

2) It's literally all engine. Under the hood and in the trunk. Little or no cargo capacity.

3) It's got $100 thousand bucks of parts. Not exactly price-competitive.

End Quote

It is a prototype. Now that it has been shown that it can be built, a process can be engineered that greatly reduces the cost assembly, while increasing the impact safety of the vehicle and lowering the engine load. As more of these models are produced, the increased demand for the parts used in their construction will lead to engineers refining the manufacturing processes that make these parts, bringing the cost of construction down significantly.

Prototypes almost ALWAYS cost significantly more than the final product that is produced. And once the product has been in production for a few years, the production cost per unit decreases even more. If they can build a prototype for $100,000 worth of parts, then they should be able to mass produce these vehicles for a much lower price, one that will be competitive with hybrid cars currently on the market in the short term. In the long term, the cost of production per unit will decrease even more, and the profit per unit sold will increase as well.

[Ready4Change]

13. $100,000 is dirt cheap, for a functioning concept vehicle. n/t

[phantom power]

14. Yes, and at the end of that process, you will have...

A Prius :-)

[kestrel91316]

8. Somebody needs to have a word with these young people about

this "0-60 in 4 seconds" NONSENSE. Betcha they could get MUCH better mileage if they didn't insist on a dragster.

[Dead_Parrot]

10. Not that much better...

The stonking acceleration is handled by the caps and the motor: the cruising MPG is mainly down to air resistance, which is probably pretty low by the look of the thing. The main thing they're missing out on is somewhere to put the shopping.

In terms of concept, it's pretty similar to the Morgan lifecar (ultracap-based hybrid sportscar), although Morgan are going the whole hog and using a hydrogen fuel cell instead of a gas engine.

[rfkrfk]

12. that is very debateable

this is mostly a cost issue

more ultracaps, and bigger electric motor,
more acceleration, but also better regen braking recovery

downside to the above is...
more weight, need for bigger tires


the current Toyota Prius is maxed out
for regen braking, at a panic stop
of four miles per hour.....
electrical braking horsepower of the
Prius is about 27 HP,

for a panic stop at 60 MPH,
the brakes absorb over 450 HP